The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 32
CHAPTER XXXII.
Affairs or Kansas. — Congressional Proceedings.
The thirty-fourth session of congress convened at the capitol on the 3d of December, 1855. Nine weeks were spent in unsuccessful attempts to organize by the choice of a speaker. The plurality rule was finally adopted, and on the one hundred and thirty-third ballot, Nathaniel P. Banks, republican, was chosen by a vote of 103 to 100.
A history of the events which followed the organization of Kansas under the provisions of the act, may be gathered from the following extracts from official documents. On the 24th of January, 1856, President Pierce transmitted the following special message to congress on the affairs of Kansas:
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT.
Circumstances have occurred to disturb the course of governmental organization in the territory of Kansas, and produce there a condition of things which renders it incumbent on me to call your attention to the subject, and urgently recommend the adoption by you of such measures of legislation as the grave exigencies of the case appear to require.
A brief exposition of the circumstances referred to, and of their causes, will be necessary to the full understanding of the recommendations which it is proposed to submit.
The act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas was a manifestation of the legislative opinion of congress on two great points of constitutional construction: One, that the designation of the boundaries of a new territory, and provision for its political organization and administration as a territory, are measures which of right fall within the powers of the general government; and the other, that the inhabitants of any such territory, considered as an inchoate state, are entitled, in the exercise of self-government, to determine for themselves what shall be their own domestic institutions, subject only to the constitution and the laws duly enacted by congress under it, and to the power of the existing states to decide, according to the provisions and principles of the constitution, at what time the territory shall be received as state into the Union. Such are the great political rights which are solemnly declared and affirmed by that act.
Based upon this theory, the act of congress defined for each territory the outlines of republican government, distributing public authority among the lawfully created agents—executive, judicial and legislative—to be appointed either by the general government or by the territory. The legislative functions were entrusted to a council and a house of representatives, duly elected and empowered to enact all the local laws which they might deem essential to their prosperity, happiness and good government. Acting in the same spirit, congress also defined the persons who were in the first instance to be considered as the people of each territory; enacting that every free white male inhabitant of the same above the age of twenty-one years, being an actual resident thereof, and possessing the qualifications hereafter described, should be entitled to vote at the first election, and be eligible to any office within the territory; but that the qualifications of voters and holding office at all subsequent elections should be such as might be prescribed by the legislative assembly; provided, however, that the right of suffrage and of holding office should be exercised only by citizens of the United States, and those who should have declared on oath their intention to become such, and have taken an oath to support the constitution of the United States and the provisions of the act; and provided further, that no officer, soldier, seaman or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in their service, should be allowed to vote or hold office in either territory by reason of being on service therein.
Such of the public officers of the territories as, by the provisions of the act, were to be appointed by the general government, including the governors, were appointed and commissioned in due season—the law having been enacted on the 30th of May, 1854, and the commission of the governor of the territory of Nebraska being dated on the 2d day of August, 1854, and of the territory of Kansas on the 29th day of June, 1854.
Among the duties imposed by the act upon the governors, was that of directing and superintending the political organization of the respective territories. The governor of Kansas was required to cause a census or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of the territory to be taken, by such persons and in such mode as he might designate and appoint; to appoint and direct the time and places of holding the first elections, and the manner of conducting them, both as to the persons to superintend such elections, and the returns thereof; to declare the number of the members of the council and house of representatives for each county or district; to declare what persons might appear to be duly elected; and to appoint the time and place of the first meeting of the legislative assembly. In substance, the same duties were devolved on the governor of Nebraska.
While, by this act, the principle of constitution for each of the territories was one and the same, and the details of organic legislation regarding both were as nearly as could be identical, and while the territory of Nebraska was tranquilly and successfully organized in the due course of law, and its first legislative assembly met on the 16th of January, 1855, the organization of Kansas was long delayed, and has been attended with serious difficulties and embarrassments, partly the consequence of local mal-administration, and partly of the unjustifiable interference of the inhabitants of some of the states, foreign by residence, interests and rights to the territory.
The governor of the territory of Kansas did not reach the designated seat of his government until the 1th of the ensuing October, and even then failed to make the first step in its legal organization—that of ordering the census or enumeration of its inhabitants—until so late a day that the % election of the members of the legislative assembly did not take place until the 30th of March, 1855, nor its meeting until the 2d of July, 1855; so that, for a year after the territory was constituted by the act of congress, and the officers to be appointed by the federal executive had been commissioned, it was without a complete government, without any legislative authority, without local law, and, of course, without the ordinary guarantees of peace and public order.
In other respects, the governor, instead of exercising constant vigilance and putting forth all his energies to prevent or counteract the tendencies to illegality which are prone to exist in all imperfectly-organized and newly-associated communities, allowed his attention to be diverted from official obligation by other objects, and himself sat an example of the violation of law in the performance of acts which rendered it my duty, in the sequel, to remove him from the office of chief executive magistrate of the territory.
Before the requisite preparation was accomplished for election of a territorial legislature, an election for delegate to congress had been held in the territory on the 29th day of November, 1854, and the delegate took his scat in the house of representatives without challenge. If arrangements had been perfected by the governor so that the election for members of the legislative assembly might be held in the several precincts at the same time as for delegate to congress, any question appertaining to the qualification of the persons voting as people of the territory, would have passed necessarily and at once under the supervision of congress, as the judge of the validity of the return of the delegate, and would have been determined before conflicting passions had become inflamed by time, and before opportunity could have been afforded for systematic interference of the people of individual states.
This interference, in so far as concerns its primary causes and its immediate commencement, was one of the incidents of that pernicious agitation on the subject of the condition of the colored persons held to service in some of the states, which has so long disturbed the repose of our country, and excited individuals, otherwise patriotic and law-abiding, to toil with misdirected zeal in the attempt to propagate their social theories by the perversion and abuse of the powers of congress.
The persons and parties whom the tenor of the act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the endeavor to impose, through the agency of congress, their particular views of social organization on the people of the future new states, now perceiving that the policy of leaving the inhabitants of each state to judge for themselves in this respect was-ineradicably rooted in the convictions of the people of the Union, then had recourse, in the pursuit of their general object, to the extraordinary measure of propagandist colonization of the territory of Kansas, to prevent the free and natural action of its inhabitants in its internal organization, and thus to anticipate or to force the determination of that question in this inchoate state.
With such views, associations were organized in some of the states, and their purpose was proclaimed through the press in language extremely irritating and offensive to those of whom the colonists were to become the neighbors. Those designs and acts had the necessary consequence to awaken emotions of intense indignation in states near to the territory of Kansas, and especially in the adjoining state of Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly endangered; but they are far from justifying the illegal and reprehensible counter-movements which ensued.
Under these inauspicious circumstances, the primary elections for members of the legislative assembly were held in most, if not all, of the precincts, at the time and the places and by the persons designated and appointed by the governor, according to law.
Angry accusations that illegal votes had been polled, abounded on all sides, and imputations were made both of fraud and violence. But the governor, in the exercise of the power and the discharge of the duty conferred and imposed by law on him alone, officially received and considered the returns; declared a large majority of the members of the council and the house of representatives "duly elected;" withheld certificates from others because of alleged illegality of votes; appointed a new election to supply the place of the persons not certified; and thus, at length, in all the forms of statute, and with his own official authentication, complete legality was given to the first legislative assembly of the territory.
Those decisions of the returning-officers and of the governor are final, except that by the parliamentary usage of the country applied to the organic law, it may be conceded that each house of the assembly must have been competent to determine, in the last resort, the qualifications and the election of its members. The subject was, by its nature, one appertaining exclusively to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of the territory. Whatever irregularities may have occurred in the elections, it seems too late now to raise that question as to which, neither now nor at any previous time, has the least possible legal authority been possessed by the President of the United States. For all present purposes, the legislative body, thus constituted and elected, was the legitimate assembly of the territory.
Accordingly, the governor, by procalmation, convened the assembly thus elected to meet at a place called Pawnee City. The two houses met, and were duly organized in the ordinary parliamentary form; each sent to and received from the governor the official communications usual on such occasions; an elaborate message opening the session was communicated by the governor, and the general business of legislation was entered upon by the legislative assembly.
But, after a few days, the assembly resolved to adjourn to another plaee in the territory. A law was accordingly passed, against the consent of the governor, but in due form otherwise, to remove the seat of government temporarily to the "Shawnee Manual-labor School" (or mission,) and thither the assembly proceeded. After this, receiving a bill for the establishment of a ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the governor refused to sign it, and, by special message, assigned for reason of refusal, not anything objectionable in the bill itself, nor any pretense of the illegality or incompetency of the assembly as such, but only the fact that the assembly had, by its act, transferred the seat of government temporarily from Pawnee City to Shawnee Mission. For the same reason he continued to refuse to sign other bills, until, in the course of a few days, he, by official message, communicated to the assembly the fact that he had received notification of the termination of his functions as governor, and that the duties of the office were legally devolved on the secretary of the territory; thus to the last recognizing the body as a duly-elected and constituted legislative assembly.
It will be perceived that if any constitutional defect attached to the legislative acts of the assembly, it is not pretended to consist in irregularity of election or want of qualification of the members, but only in the change of its place of session. However trivial the objection may seem to be, it requires to be considered, because upon it is founded all that superstructure of acts, plainly against law, which now threatens the peace not only of the territory of Kansas, but of the Union.
Such an objection to the proceedings of the legislative assembly was of exceptionable origin, for the reason that, by the express terms of the organic law, the seat of government of the territory was " located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and yet the governor himself remained there less than two months, and of his own discretion transferred the seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, where it in fact was at the time the assembly were called to meet at Pawnee City. If the governor had any such right to change temporarily the seat of government, still more had the legislative assembly. The objection is of exceptional origin for the further reason that the place indicated by the governor, without having an exclusive claim of preference in itself, was a proposed towu-site only, which he and others were attempting to locate unlawfully upon land within a military reservation, and for participation in which illegal act the commander of a post, a superior officer of the army, has been dismissed by sentence of court-martial.
Nor is it easy to see why the legislative assembly might not with propriety pass the territorial act transferring its sittings to the Shawnee Mission. If it could not, that must be on account of some prohibitory or incompatible provision of act of congress. But no such provision exists. The organic act, as already quoted, says "the seat of government is hereby located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and it then provides that certain of the public buildings there "maybe occupied and used under the direction of the governor and legislative assembly." These expressions might possibly be construed to imply that when, in a previous section of the act, it was enacted that "the first legislative assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the governor shall appoint," the word "place" means place at Fort Leavenworth, not place anywhere in the territory. If so, the governor would have been the first to err in this matter, not only in himself having removed the seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, but in again removing it to Pawnee City. If there was any departure from the letter of the law, therefore, it was his in both instances. But, however this may be, it is most unreasonable to suppose that by the terms of the organic act, congress intended to do impliedly what it has not done expressly—that is, to forbid to the legislative assembly the power to choose any place it might see fit as the temporary seat of its deliberations. That is proved by the significant language of one of the subsequent acts of congress on the subject, that of March 3, 1855, which, in making appropriation for public buildings of the territory, enacts that the same shall not be expended "until the legislature of said territory shall have fixed by law the permanent seat of government." Congress, in these expressions, does not profess to be granting the power to fix the permanent seat of government, but recognizes the power as one already granted. But how? Undoubtedly by the comprehensive provision of the organic act itself, which declares that "the legislative power of the territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act." If, in view of this act, the legislative assembly had the large power to fix the permanent seat of government at any place in its discretion, of course by the same enactment it had the less and the included power to fix it temporarily.
Nevertheless, the allegation that the acts of the legislative assembly were illegal by reason of this removal of its place of session, was brought forward to justify the first great movement in disregard of law within the territory. One of the acts of the legislative assembly provided for the election of a delegate to the present congress, and a delegate was elected under that law. But, subsequently to this, a portion of the people of the territory proceeded, without authority of law, to elect another delegate.
Following upon this movement was another and more important one of the same general character. Persons confessedly not constituting the body politic, or all the inhabitants, but merely a party of the inhabitants, and without law, have undertaken to summon a convention for the purpose of transforming the territory into a state, and have framed a constitution, adopted it, and under it elected a governor and other officers, and a representative to congress.
In extenuation of these illegal acts, it is alleged that the state of California, Michigan, and others, were self-organized, and as such were admitted into the Union, without a previous enabling act of congress. It is true that, while iu a majority of cases a previous act of congress has been passed to authorize the territory to present itself as a state, and that this is deemed the most regular course, yet such an act has not been held to he indispensable, and in some cases the territory has proceeded without it, and has nevertheless been admitted into the Union as a state. It lies with congress to authorize beforehand, or to confirm afterward, in its discretion; but in no instance has a state been admitted upon the application of persons acting against authorities duly constituted by act of congress. In every case it is the people of the territory, not a party among them, who have the power to form a constitution and ask for admission as a state. No principle of public law, no practice or precedent under the constitution of the United States, no rule of reason, right, or common sense, confers any such power as that now claimed by a mere party in the territory. In fact, what has been done is of revolutionary character. It is avowedly so in motive and in aim as respects the local law of the territory. It will become treasonable insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance by force to the fundamental or any other federal law, and to the authority of the general government.
In such an event, the path of duty for the executive is plain. The constitution requiring him to take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed, if they be opposed in the territory of Kansas, he may and should place at the disposal of the marshal any public force of the United States which happens to be within the jurisdiction, to be used as a portion of the posse comitatus; and, if that do not suffice to maintain order, then he may call forth the militia of one or more states for that object, or employ for the same object any part of the land or naval force of the United States. So also if the obstruction be to the laws of the territory, and it be duly presented to him as a case of insurrection, he may employ for its suppression the military of any state, or the land or naval force of the United States. And if the territory be invaded by the citizens of other states, whether for the purpose of deciding elections or for any other, and the local authorities find themselves unable to repel or withstand it, they will be entitled to, and upon the fact being fully ascertained, they shall most certainly receive, the aid of the general government.
But it is not the duty of the President of the United States to volunteer interposition by force to preserve the purity of elections either in a state or territory. To do so would be subversive of public freedom. And whether a law be wise or unwise, just or unjust, is not a question for him to judge. If it be constitutional—that is, if it be the law of the land—it is his duty to cause it to be executed, or to sustain the authorities of any state or territory in executing it in opposition to all insurrectionary movements.
Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts; for the constitutional means of relieving the people of unjust administration and laws, by a change of public agents and by repeal, are ample, and more prompt and effective than illegal violence. These constitutional means must be scrupulously guarded—this great prerogative of popular sovereignty sacredly respected.
It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the territory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own laws, and regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or domestic molestation. Interference, on the one hand, to procure the abolition or prohibition of slave-labor in the territory, has produced mischievous interference on the other for its maintenance or introduction. One wrong begets another. Statements entirely unfounded or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the territory, are sedulously diffused through remote states to feed the Same of sectional animosity there; and the agitators there exert themselves indefatigably in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the territory.
The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, north and south. But for it the character of the domestic institutions of the future new state would have been a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous states, personally or collectively, to produce among them any political, emotion. Climate, soil, production, hopes of rapid advancement, and the pursuit of happiness on the part of settlers themselves, with good wishes but with no interference from without, would have quietly determined the question which is at this time of such disturbing character.
But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances of embarrassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the states and especially of those contiguous to the territory, neither by intervention of non-residents in elections, nor by unauthorized military force, to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the territory.
No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part of its government, and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy and its measures; and that, therefore, the highest considerations of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain, by whatever of power or influence he may possess, the integrity of the laws of the republic.
Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the whole power of the federal executive to support public order in the territory; to vindicate its laws, whether federal or local, against all attempts of organized resistance; and so to protect its people in the establishment of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroachment from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-government assured to them by the constitution and the organic act of congress.
Although serious and threatening disturbances in the territory of Kansas, announced to me by the governor, in December last, were speedily quieted without the effusion of blood, and in a satisfactory manner, there is, I regret to say, reason to apprehend that disorders will continue to occur there, with increasing tendency to violence, until some decisive measures be taken to dispose of the question itself which constitutes the inducement or occasion of internal agitation and of external interference.
This, it seems to me, can best be accomplished by providing that, when the inhabitants of Kansas may desire it, and shall be of sufficient numbers to constitute a state, a convention of delegates, duly elected by the qualified voters, shall assemble to frame a constitution, and thus to prepare, through regular and lawful means, for its admission into the Union as a state. I respectfully recommend the enactment of a law to that effect.
I recommend, also, that a special appropriation be made to defray any expense which may become requisite in the execution of the laws or the maintenance of public order in the territory of Kansas.
This message of the president was referred to the committee on territories in the senate, and on the 12th of March, Mr. Douglas, from the committee, made an elaborate report, from which we have room only for a few extracts. Mr. Douglas attributed the origin of the difficulties in Kansas to the emigrant aid societies:
EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF MR. DOUGLAS.
Your committee deem this an appropriate occasion to state briefly, but distinctly, the principles upon which new states may be admitted and territories organized under the authority of the constitution of the United States.
The constitution (section 3, article 4) provides that "new states may be admitted by the congress into this Union."
Section 8, article 1: "Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof."
10th amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
A state of the federal Union is a sovereign power, limited only by the constitution of the United States.
The limitations which that instrument has imposed are few, specific, and uniform—applicable alike to all the states, old and new. There is no authority for putting a restriction upon the sovereignty of a new state which the constitution has not placed on the original states. Indeed, if such a restriction could be imposed on any state, it would instantly cease to be a state within the meaning of the federal constitution, and, in consequence of the inequality, would assimilate to the condition of a province or dependency. Hence, equality among all the states of the Union is a fundamental principle in our federative system—a principle embodied in the constitution, as the basis upon which the American Union rests.
African slavery existed in all the colonies, under the sanction of the British government, prior to the declaration of independence. When the constitution of the United States was adopted, it became the supreme law and bond of union between twelve slaveholding states and one non-slaveholding state. Each state reserved the right to decide the question of slavery for itself—to continue it as a domestic institution so long as it pleased, and to abolish it when it chose.
In pursuance of this reserved right, six of the original slaveholding states have since abolished and prohibited slavery within their limits respectively, without consulting congress or their sister states; while the other six have retained and sustained it as a domestic institution which, in their opinion, had become so firmly engrafted on their social systems that the relation between the master and slave could not be dissolved with safety to either. In the mean time eighteen new states have been admitted into the Union, in obedience to the federal constitution, on an equal footing with the original states, including, of course, the right of each to decide the question of slavery for itself. In deciding this question, it has so happened that nine of these new states have abolished and prohibited slavery, while the other nine have retained and regulated it. That these new states had at the time of their admission, and still retain, an equal right under the federal constitution with the original states, to decide all questions of domestic policy for themselves, including that of African slavery, ought not to be seriously questioned, and certainly cannot be successfully controverted.
They are all subject to the same supreme law, which, by the consent of each, constitutes the only limitation upon their sovereign authority.
Since we find the right to admit new states enumerated among the powers expressly delegated in the constitution, the question arises, whence does congress derive authority to organize temporary government for the territories preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states? Your committee are not prepared to adopt the reasoning which deduces the power from that other clause of the constitution, which says:
"Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States."
The language of this clause is much more appropriate when applied to property than to persons. It would seem to have been employed for the purpose of conferring upon congress the power of disposing of the public lands and other property belonging to the United States, and to make all needful rules and regulations for that purpose, rather than to govern the people who might purchase those lands from the United States and become residents thereon. The word "territory" was an appropriate expression to designate that large area of public lands of which the United States had become the owner by virtue of the revolution and the cession by the several states. The additional words, "or other property belonging to the United States," clearly shows that the term "territory" was used in its ordinary geographical sense, to designate the public domain, and not as descriptive of the whole body of the people constituting a distinct political community, who have no representation in congress, and consequently no voice in making the laws upon which all their rights and liberties would depend, if it were conceded that congress had the general and unlimited power to make all "needful rules and regulations concerning" their internal affairs and domestic concerns. It is under this clause of the constitution, and from this alone, that congress derives authority to provide for the survey of the public lands, for securing preëmption rights to actual settlers, for the establishment of land offices in the several states and territories, for exposing the lands to private and public sale, for issuing patents and confirming titles, and, in short, for making all needful rules and regulations for protecting and disposing of the public domain and other property belonging to the United States.
These needful rules and regulations may be embraced, and usually are found in general laws applicable alike to states and territories, wherever the United States may be the owner of the lands or other property to be regulated or disposed of. It can make no difference, under this clause of the constitution, whether the "territory or other property belonging to the United States," shall be situated in Ohio or Kansas, in Alabama or Minnesota, in California or Oregon. The power of congress to make needful rules and regulations is the same in the states and the territories, to the extent that the title is vested in the United States. Inasmuch as the right of legislation in such cases rests exclusively upon the fact of ownership, it is obvious it can extend only to the tracts of land to which the United States possess the title, and must cease in respect to each tract the instant it becomes private property by purchase from the United States. It will scarcely be contended that congress possesses the power to legislate for the people of those states in which public lands may be located, in respect to their internal affairs and domestic concerns, merely because the United States may be so fortunate as to own a portion of the territory and other property within the limits of those states. Yet it should be borne in mind that this clause of the constitution confers upon congress the same power to make needful rules and regulations in the states as it does in the territories, concerning the territory or other property belonging to the United States.
In view of these considerations, your committee are not prepared to affirm that congress derives authority to institute governments for the people of the territories, from that clause of the constitution which confers the right to make needful rules and regulations concerning the territory or other property belonging to the United States; much less can we deduce the power from any supposed necessity, arising outside of the constitution and not provided for in that instrument. The federal government is one of delegated and limited powers, clothed with no rightful authority which does not result directly and necessarily from the constitution. Necessity, when experience shall have clearly demonstrated its existence, may furnish satisfactory reasons for enlarging the authority of the federal government, by amendments to the constitution, in the mode prescribed in that instrument; but cannot afford the slightest excuse for the assumption of powers not delegated, and which, by the tenth amendment, are expressly "reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Hence, before the power can be safely exercised, the right of congress to organize territories, by instituting temporary governments, must be traced directly to some provision of the constitution conferring the authority in express terms, or as a means necessary and proper to carry into effect some one or more of the powers which are specifically delegated. Is not the organization of a territory eminently necessary and proper as a means of enabling the people thereof to form and mould their local and domestic institutions, and establish a state government under the authority of the constitution, preparatory to its admission into the Union? If so, the right of congress to pass the organic act for the temporary government is clearly included in the provision which authorizes the. admission of new states. This power, however, being an incident to an express grant, and resulting from it by necessary implication, as an appropriate means for carrying it into effect, must be exercised in harmony with the nature and objects of the grant from which it is deduced. The organic act of the territory, deriving its validity from the power of congress to admit new states, must contain no provision or restriction which would destroy or impair the equality of the proposed state with the original states, or impose any limitation upon its sovereignty which the constitution has not placed on all the states. So far as the organization of a territory may be necessary and proper as a means of carrying into effect the provision of the constitution for the admission of new states, and when exercised with reference only to that end, the power of congress is clear and explicit; but beyond that point the authority cannot extend, for the reason that all "powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." In other words, the organic act of the territory, conforming to the spirit of the grant from which it receives its validity, must leave the people entirely free to form and regulate their domestic institutions and internal concerns in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States, to the end that when they attain the requisite population, and establish a state government in conformity to the federal constitution, they may be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatsoever.
The act of congress for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was designed to conform to the spirit and letter of the federal constitution, by preserving and maintaining the fundamental principles of equality among all the states of the Union, notwithstanding the restriction contained in the 8th section of the act of March 6, 1820, (preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union,) which assumed to deny to the people forever the right to settle the question of slavery for themselves, provided they should make their homes and organize states north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. Conforming to the cardinal principles of state equality and self-government, in obedience to the constitution, the Kansas-Nebraska act declared, in the precise language of the compromise measures of 1850, that, "when admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." Again, after declaring the 8th section of the Missouri act (sometimes called the Missouri compromise, or Missouri restriction) inoperative and void, as being repugnant to these principles, the purpose of congress, in passing this act, is declared in these words: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to Legislate slavery into any state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States."
Immediately after the passage of the act, combinations were entered into in some portions of the Union to control the political destinies, and form and regulate the domestic institutions, of those territories and future states, through the machinery of emigrant aid societies. In order to give consistency and efficiency to the movement, and surround it with the color of legal authority, an act of incorporation was procured from the legislature of the state of Massachusetts, in which it was provided, in the first section, that twenty persons therein named, and their "associates, successors, and assigns, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west." The second section limited the capital stock of the company to five millions of dollars, and authorized the whole to be invested in real and personal estate, with the proviso that "the said corporation shall not hold real estate in this commonwealth, (Massachusetts) to an amount exceeding twenty thousand dollars." Although the act of incorporation does not distinctly declare that the company was formed for the purpose of controlling the domestic institutions of the territory of Kansas, and forcing it into the Union with a prohibition of slavery in her constitution, regardless of the rights and wishes of the people as guarantied by the constitution of the United States, and secured by their organic law, yet tho whole history of the movement, the circumstances in which it had its origin, and the professions and avowals of all engaged in it, render it certain and undeniable that such was its object.
To remove all doubt upon this point, your committee present a few extracts from a pamphlet published by the company:
"For these purposes it is recommended, 1st. That the trustees contract immediately with some one of the competing lines of travel for the conveyance of 20,000 persons from Massachusetts to that place in the west which the trustees shall select for their first settlement."*****
"It is recommended that the company's agents locate and take up for the company's benefit, the sections of land in which the boarding-houses and mills are located, and no others. And further, whenever the territory shall be organized as a free state, the trustees shall dispose of all its interests there, replace by the sales the money laid out, declare a dividend to the stockholders, and that they then select a new field, and make similar arrangements for the settlement and organization of another free state of this Union."*****
"With the advantages attained by such a system of effort, the territory selected as the scene of operations would, it is believed, be filled up with free inhabitants."**
"There is reason to suppose several thousand men of New England origin propose to emigrate under the auspices of some such arrangement, this very summer. Of the whole emigration from Europe, amounting to some 400,000 persons, there can be no difficulty in inducing some thirty or forty thousand to take the same direction."**
"Especially will it prove an advantage to Massachusetts, if she create the new state by her foresight, supply the necessities of its inhabitants, and open in the outset communications between their homes and her ports and factories."
"It determines in the right way the institutions of the unsettled territories, in less time than the discussion of them has required in congress."**This movement is justified by those who originated and control the plan, upon the ground that the persons whom they sent to Kansas were free men, who, under the constitution and laws, had a perfect right to emigrate to Kansas or any other territory; that the act of emigration was entirely voluntary on their part; and when they arrived in the territory as actual settlers, they had as good a right as any other citizens to vote at the elections, and participate in the control of the government of the territory. This would undoubtedly be true in a case of ordinary emigration, such as has filled up our new states and territories, where each individual has gone, on his own account, to improve his condition and that of his family. But it is a very different thing where a state creates a vast moneyed corporation for the purpose of controlling the domestic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen hundred miles distant, and sends out the emigrants only as a means of accomplishing its paramount political objects. When a powerful corporation, with a capital of five millions of dollars invested in houses and lands, in merchandise and mills, in cannon and rifles, in powder and lead—in all the implements of art, agriculture, and war, and employing a corresponding number of men, all under the management and control of non-resident directors and stockholders, who are authorized by their charter to vote by proxy to the extent of fifty votes each, enters a distant and sparsely settled territory with the fixed purpose of wielding all its power to control the domestic institutions and political destinies of the territory, it becomes a question of fearful import, how far the operations of the company are compatible with the rights and liberties of the people. Whatever may be the extent or limit of congressional authority over the territories, it is clear that no individual state has the right to pass any law or authorize any act concerning or affecting the territories, which it might not enact in reference to any other state.
When the emigrants sent out by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, and their affiliated societies, passed through the state of Missouri in large numbers on their way to Kansas, the violence of their language, and the unmistakable indications of their determined hostility to the domestic institutions of that state, created apprehensions that the object of the company was to abolitionize Kansas as a means of prosecuting a relentless warfare upon the institution of slavery within the limits of Missouri. These apprehensions increased and spread with the progress of events, until they became the settled convictions of the people of that portion of the state most exposed to the danger by their proximity to the Kansas border. The natural consequence was, that immediate steps were taken by the people of the western counties of Missouri to stimulate, organize, and carry into effect a system of emigration similar to that of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the avowed purpose of counteracting the effects, and protecting themselves and their domestic institutions from the consequences of that company's operations.
The material difference in the character of the two rival and conflicting movements consists in the fact that the one had its origin in an aggressive, and the other in a defensive policy. The one was organized in pursuance of the provisions and claiming to act under the authority of a legislative enactment of a distant state, whose internal prosperity and domestic security did not depend upon the success of the movement; while the other was the spontaneous action of the people living in the immediate vicinity of the theatre of operations, excited by a sense of common danger to the necessity of protecting their own firesides from the apprehended horrors of servile insurrection and intestine war. Both parties, conceiving it to be essential to the success of their respective plans that they should be upon the field of operations prior to the first election in the territory, selected principally young men, persons unencumbered by families, and whose conditions in life enabled them to leave at a moment's warning, and move with great celerity, to go at once, and select and occupy the most eligible sites and favored locations in the territory, to be held by themselves and their associates who should follow them. For the successful prosecution of such a scheme, the Missourians, who lived in the immediate vicinity, possessed peculiar advantages over their rivals from the more remote portions of the Union. Each family could send one of its members across the line to mark out his claim, erect a cabin, and put in a small crop, sufficient to give him as valid a right to be deemed an actual settler and qualified voter as those who were being imported by the emigrant aid societies. In an unoccupied territory, where the lands have not been surveyed, and where there were no marks or lines to indicate the boundaries of sections and quarter-sections, and where no legal title could be had until after the surveys should be made, disputes, quarrels, violence, and bloodshed might have been expected as the natural and inevitable consequences of such extraordinary systems of emigration, which divided and arrayed the settlers into two great hostile parties, each having an inducement to claim more than was his right, in order to hold it for some new comer of his own party, and at the same time prevent persons belonging to the opposite party from settling in the neighborhood. As a result of this state of things, the great mass of emigrants from the northwest and from other states who went there on their own account, with no other object and influence, by no other motives than to improve their condition and secure good homes for their families, were compelled to array themselves under the banner of one of these hostile parties, in order to insure protection to themselves and their claims against the aggressions and violence of the other.
Your committee have not considered it any part of their duty to examine and review each enactment and provision of the large volume of laws adopted by the legislature of Kansas upon almost every rightful subject of legislation, and affecting nearly every relation and interest in life, with a view either to their approval or disapproval by congress, for the reason that they are local laws, confined in their operation to the internal concerns of the territory, the control and management of which, by the principles of the federal constitution, as well as by the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska act, are confided to the people of the territory, to be determined by themselves through their representatives in their local legislature, and not by the congress, in which they have no representatives to give or withhold their assent to the laws upon which their rights and liberties may all depend. Under these laws marriages have taken place, children have been born, deaths have occurred, estates have been distributed, contracts have been made, and rights have accrued which it is not competent for congress to divest. If there can be a doubt in respect to the validity of these laws, growing out of the alleged irregularity of the election of the members of the legislature, or the lawfulness of the place where its sessions were held, which it is competent for any tribunal to inquire into with a view to its decision at this day, and after the series of events which have ensued, it must be a judicial question, over which congress can have no control, and which can be determined only by the courts of justice, under the protection and sanction of the constitution.
When it was proposed in the last congress to annul the acts of the legislative assembly of Minnesota, incorporating certain railroad companies, this committee reported against the proposition, and, instead of annulling the local legislation of the territory, recommended the repeal of that clause of the organic act of Minnesota which reserves to congress the right to disapprove its laws. That recommendation was based on the theory that the people of the territory, being citizens of the United States, were entitled to the privilege of self-government in obedience to the constitution; and if, in the exercise of this right, they had made wise and just laws, they ought to be permitted to enjoy all the advantages resulting from them; while, on the contrary, if they had made unwise and unjust laws, they should abide the consequences of their own acts until they discovered, acknowledged, and corrected their errors.
It has been alleged that gross misrepresentations have been made in respect to the character of the laws enacted by the legislature of Kansas, calculated, if not designed, to prejudice the public mind at a distance against those who enacted them, and to create the impression that it was the duty of congress to interfere and annul them. In view of the violent and insurrectionary measures which were being taken to resist the laws of the territory, a convention of delegates, representing almost every portion of the territory of Kansas, was held at the city of Leavenworth on the 14th of November, 1855, at which men of all shades of political opinions, "whigs, democrats, pro-slavery men, and freo state men, all met and harmonized together, and forgot their former differences in the common danger that seemed to threaten the peace, good order, and prosperity of this community." This convention was presided over by the governor of the territory, assisted by a majority of the judges of the supreme court; and the address to the citizens of the United States, among other distinguished names, bears the signatures of the United States district attorney and marshal for the territory. It is but reasonable to assume that the interpretation which these functionaries have given to the acts of the Kansas legislature in this address will he observed in their official exposition and execution of the same. In reference to the wide-spread perversions and misrepresentations of those laws, this address says:
"It has been charged and widely circulated that the legislature, in order to perpetuate their rule, had passed a law prescribing the qualifications of voters, by which it is declared 'that any one may vote who will swear allegiance to the fugitive slave law, the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and pay one dollar.' Such is declared to be the evidence of citizenship, such the qualification of voters. In reply to this, we say that no such law was ever passed by the legislature. The law prescribing the qualification of voters expressly provides that, to entitle a person to vote, he must be twenty-one years of age, an actual inhabitant of this territory, and of the county or district in which he offers to vote, and shall have paid a territorial tax. There is no law requiring him to pay a dollar-tax as a qualification to vote. He must pay a tax it is true, [and this is by no means an unusual requirement in the states;] but whether this tax is levied on his personal or real property, his money at interest, or is a poll-tax, makes no difference; the payment of any territorial tax entitles the person to vote, provided he has the other qualifications provided by law. The act seems to be carefully drawn with the view of excluding all illegal and foreign votes. The voter must be an inhabitant of the territory, and of the county or district in which he offers to vote, and he must have paid a territorial tax. The judges and clerks are required to be sworn, and to keep duplicate poll-boxes; and ample provision is made for contesting elections, and purging the polls of the illegal votes. It is difficult to see how a more guarded law could be framed, for the purpose of protecting the purity of elections and the sanctity of the ballot-box. The law does not require the voter to swear to support the fugitive slave law, or the Kansas and Nebraska bill, unless he is challenged; in that case, he is required to take an oath to support each of these laws. As to the dollar law, [so called,] it is merely a poll-tax, and has no more connection with the right of suffrage than any other tax levied by the territorial authority, and is to be paid whether the party votes or not. It is a mere temporary measure, having no force beyond this year, and was resorted to as such to supply the territorial treasury with the necessary means to carry on the government.
"It has also been charged against the legislature that they elected all of the officers of the territory for six years. This is without any foundation. They elected no officer for six years; and the only civil officers they retain the election of, that occurs to us at present, are the auditor and treasurer of state, and the district attorneys, who hold their offices for four, and not six years. By the organic act, the commissions issued by the governor to the civil officers of the territory all expired on the adjournment of the legislature. To prevent a failure in the local administration, and from necessity, the legislature made a number of temporary appointments, such as probate judge, and two county commissioners, and a sheriff of each county. The probate judge and county commissioners constitute the tribunal for the transaction of county business, and are invested with the power to appoint justices of the peace, constables, county surveyor, recorder, and clerk, etc. Probate judges, county commissioners, sheriffs, etc., are all temporary appointments, and are made elective by the people at the first annual election in 1857. The legislature could not have avoided making some temporary appointments. No A few days after Governor Reeder dissolved his official relation with the legislature, on account of the removal of the seat of government, and while that body was still in session, a meeting was called by "many voters," to assemble at Lawrence on the 14th or 15th of August, 1855, "to take into consideration the propriety of calling a territorial convention, preliminary to the formation of a state government, and other subjects of public interest." At that meeting the following preamble and resolutions were adopted with but one dissenting voice:
"Whereas, the people of Kansas territory have been since its settlement, and now are, without any law-making power: therefore,
"Be it resolved, that we, the people of Kansas territory, in mass meeting assembled, irrespective of party distinctions, influenced by a common necessity, and greatly desirous of promoting the common good, do hereby call upon and request all bona fide citizens of Kansas territory, of whatever political views and predilections, to consult together in their respective election districts, and in mass convention or otherwise, elect throe delegates for each representative of the legislative assembly, by proclamation of Governor Reeder of date 10th March, 1855; said delegates to assemble in convention at the town of Topeka, on the 19th day of September, 1855, then and there to consider and determine upon all subjects of public interest, and particularly upon that having reference to the speedy formation of a state constitution, with an intention of an immediate application to be admitted as a state into the Union of the United States of America."This meeting, so far as your committee have been able to ascertain, was the first step in that series of proceedings which resulted in the adoption of a constitution and state government, to be put in operation on the 4th of the present month, in subversion of the territorial government established under the authority of congress. The right to set up the state government in defiance of the constituted authorities of the territory, is based on the assumption "that the people of Kansas territory have been since its settlement, and now are, without any law-making power;" in the face of the well-known fait, that tho territorial legislature were then in session, in pursuance of the proclamation of Governor Reeder, and the organic law of the territory. On the 5th of September, a "territorial delegate convention" assembled at the Big Springs, "to take into consideration the present exigencies of political affairs," at which, among others, the following resolutions were adopted:
"Resolved, That this convention, in view of its recent repudiation of the acts of the so-called Kansas legislative assembly, respond most heartily to the call made by the people's convention of the 14th ultimo, for a delegate convention of the people of Kansas, to be held at Topeka, on the 19th instant, to consider the propriety of the formation of a state constitution, and such matters as may legitimately come before it.
"Resolved, That we owe no allegiance or obedience to the tyranical enactments of this spurious legislature; that their laws have no validity or binding force upon the people of Kansas; and that every freeman among us is at full liberty, consistently with his obligations as a citizen and a man, to defy and resist them if he choose so to do.
"Resolved, That we will endure and submit to these laws no longer than the Lest interests of the territory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist them to a bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable prospect of success; and that in the mean time we recommend to our friends through the territory, the organization and discipline of volunteer companies, and the procurement and preparation of arms."
"With the view to a distinct understanding of the meaning of so much of this resolution as relates to the "organization and discipline of volunteer companies, and the procurement and preparation of arms," it may be necessary to state, that there was at that time existing in the territory a secret military organization, which had been formed for political objects prior to the alleged invasion, at the election on the 30th of March, and which held its first "grand encampment at Lawrence, February 8th, 1855." Your committee have been put in possession of a small printed pamphlet, containing the "constitution and ritual of the grand encampment and regiments of Kansas legion of Kansas territory, adopted April 4th, 1855," which, during the recent disturbances in that territory, was taken on the person of one George F. Warren, who attempted to conceal and destroy the same by thrusting it into his mouth, and biting and chewing it. Although somewhat mutilated by the "tooth prints," it bears internal evidence of being a genuine document, authenticated by the original signature of "G. W. Hutchinson, grand general," and "J. K. Goodwin, grand quartermaster."
The constitution consists of six articles, regulating the organization of the "Grand Encampment," which is "composed of representatives elected from each subordinate regiment existing in the territory, as hereafter provided. The officers of the Grand Encampment shall consist of a grand general, grand general, grand quartermaster, grand paymaster, grand aid, two grand sentinels, and grand chaplain.
The "opening ceremony" of the subordinate encampment is as follows:
"The colonel, lieutenant colonel, quartermaster, paymaster, aid, and sentinels, being in their respective places, the regiment shall be called and thus addressed by the colonel: Fellow-soldiers in the free-state army: The hour has arrived when we must resume the duties devolving upon us. Let us each, with a heart devoted to justice, patriotism, and liberty, attend closely to all the regulations laid down for our government and action; each laboring to make this review pleasant and profitable to ourselves and a blessing to our country. Aid, are the sentinels at their posts, with closed doors?
"Aid. They are.
"Colonel. Aid, you will now review the troops in the regiment's pass word.
"Aid. (After examination.) I have examined them personally, and find each correct.
"Colonel. I pronounce this regiment arrayed and ready for service."
Then follows the process of initiating new recruits, who are properly vouched for by members of the order, the preliminary obligations to observe secrecy, the catechism to which the candidate is subjected, and the explanations of the colonel in respect to the objects of the order, which are thus stated: "First, to secure to Kansas the blessing and prosperity of being a free state; and, secondly, to protect the ballot-box from the leprous touch of unprincipled men." These and all other questions being satisfactorily answered, the final oath is thus administered: "With these explanations upon our part, we shall ask of you that you take with us an obligation, placing yourself in the same attitude as before.
OBLIGATION.
"I,, in the most solemn manner, here in the presence of Heaven and these witnesses, bind myself that I will never reveal, nor cause to be revealed, either by word, look, or sign, by writing, printing, engraving, painting or in any manner whatsoever, anything pertaining to this institution, save to persons duly qualified to receive the same I will never reveal the nature of the organization, the place of meeting, the fact that any person is a member of the same, or even tne existence of the organization, except to persons legally qualified to receive the same. Should I at any time withdraw, or be suspended or expelled from this organization, I will keep this obligation to the end of life. If any books, papers or moneys belonging to this organization be entrusted to my care or keeping, I will faithfully and completely deliver up the same to my successor in office, or any one legally authorized to receive them. I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a free state, and whom I feel satisfied will use his entire influence to bring about this result. I will support, maintain, and abide by any honorable movement made by the organization to secure this great end, which will not conflict with the laws of the country and the constitution of the United States. I will unflinchingly vote for and support the candidates nominated by this organization in preference to any and all others.
"To all of this obligation I do most solemnly promise and affirm, binding myself under the penalty of being expelled from this organization, of having my name published to the several territorial encampments as a perjurer before Heaven, and a traitor to my country, of passing through life, scorned and reviled by man, frowned on by devils, forsaken by angels, and abandoned by God."Your committee have deemed it important to give the outline of the "constitution and ritual of the grand encampment and regiments of the Kansas legion," as constituting the secret organization, political and military, in obedience to which the public demonstrations lntve been made to subvert the authority of the territorial government established by congress, by setting up a state government, either with or without the assent of congress, as circumstances should determine. The indorsement of this military organization, and the recommendation by the Big Springs convention for "the procurement and preparation of arms," accompanied with the distinct declaration that "we will resist them [the laws enacted by the Kansas legislature] to a bloody issue, as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable prospect of success," would seem to admit of no other interpretation than that, in the event that the courts of justice shall sustain the validity of those laws, and congress shall refuse to admit Kansas as a state with the constitution to be formed at Topeka, they will set up an independent government in defiance of the federal authority.
The same purpose is clearly indicated by the other proceedings of this convention, in which it is declared that "we with scorn repudiate the election law, so called," and nominate governor Reeder for congress, to be voted for on a different day from that authorized by law, at an election to be held by judges and clerks not appointed in pursuance of any legal authority, and not to be sworn by any person authorized by law to administer oaths; and the returns to be made, and result proclaimed, and certificate granted, in a mode and by persons not permitted to perform these acts by any law, in or out of the territory.
In accepting the nomination, governor Reeder addressed the convention as follows; and, among other things, said:
"In giving him this nomination in this manner, they had strengthened his arms to do their work, and, in return, he would now pledge to them a steady, unflinching pertinacity of purpose, never-tiring industry, dogged perseverance, and, in all the abilities with which God has endowed him, to the righting of their wrongs, and the final triumph of their cause. He believed, from the circumstances which had for the last eight months surrounded him, and which had, at the same time, placed in his possession many facts, and bound him, heart and soul, to the oppressed voters of Kansas, that he could do much towards obtaining a redress of their grievances.
"He said that, day by day a crisis was coming upon us; that, in after times, this would be to posterity a turning-point, a marked period, as are to us the opening of the revolution, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and the era of the alien and sedition laws; that we should take each carefully, so that each be a step of progress, and so that no violence be done to the tie which binds the American people together. He alluded to the unprecedented tyranny under which we are and have been; and said that, if any one supposed that institutions were to be imposed by force upon a free and enlightened people, they never knew, or had forgotten, the history of our fathers. American citizens bear in their breasts too much of the spirit of other and trying days, and have lived too long amid the blessings of liberty, to submit to oppression from any quarter; and the man who having once been free, could tamely submit to tyranny, was fit to be a slave.
"He urged the free state men of Kansas to forget all minor issues, and pursue determinedly the one great object, never swerving, but steadily pressing on as did the wise men who followed the star to the manger, looking back only for fresh encouragement. He counseled that peaceful resistance be made to the tyrannical and unjust laws of the spurious legislature; that appeals to the courts, to the ballot box. and to congress, be made for relief from this oppressive load; that violence should be deprecated as long as a single hope of peaceable redress remained; but if, at last, all these should fail—if, in the proper tribunals, there is no hope for our dearest rights, outraged and profaned—if we are still to suffer, that corrupt men may reap harvests watered by our tears —then there is one more chance for justice. God has provided, in the eternal frame of things, redress for every wrong; and there remains to us still the steady eye and the strong arm, and we must conquer, or mingle the bodies of the oppressors with those of the oppressed upon the soil which the Declaration of Independence no longer protects. But he was not at all apprehensive that such a crisis would ever arrive. He believed that justice might be found far short of so dreadful an extremity; and, even should an appeal to arms come, it was his opinion, that if we are well prepared, that moment the victory is won."
In pursuance of the recommendation of the mass meeting held at Lawrence on the 14th of August, and indorsed by the convention held at the Big Springs on the 5th and 6th of September, a convention was held at Topeka, on the 19th and 20th of September, at which it was determined to hold another convention at the same place on the fourth Tuesday of October, for the purpose of forming a constitution and state government; and to this end such proceedings were had as were deemed necessary for giving the notices, conducting the election of delegates, making the returns, and assembling the convention. With regard to the regularity of these proceedings, your committee sec no necessity for further criticism than is to be found in the fact that it was the movement of a political party instead of the whole body of the people of Kansas, conducted without the sanction of law, and in defiance of the constituted authorities, for the avowed purpose of overthrowing the territorial government established by congress.
The election for all these officers were held at the time specified; and on the fourth day of the present month, the new government was to have been put in operation, in conflict with the territorial government established by congress, and for the avowed purpose of subverting and overthrowing the same, without reference to the action of congress upon their application for admi into the Union.
Your committee are not aware of any case in the history of our own country, which can be fairly cited as an example, much less a justification, for these extraordinary proceedings. Cases have occurred in which the inhabitants of particular territories have been permitted to form constitutions, and take the initiatory steps for the organization of state governments, preparatory to their admission into the Union, without obtaining the previous assent of congress; but in every instance the proceeding has originated with, and been conducted in subordination to, the authority of the local governments established or recognized by the government of the United States. Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, and California, are sometimes cited as cases in point.
In tracing, step by step, the origin and history of these Kansas difficulties, your committee have been profoundly impressed with the significant fact, that each one has resulted from an attempt to violate or circumvent the principles and provisions of the act of congress for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska. The leading idea and fundamental principle of the Kansas-Nebraska act, as expressed in the law itself, was to leave the actual settlers and bona fide inhabitants of each territory "perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States." While this is declared to be "the true intent and meaning of the act," those who were opposed to allowing the people of the territory, preparatory to their admission into the Union as a state, to decide the slavery question for themselves, failing to accomplish their purpose in the halls of congress, and under the authority of the constitution, immediately resorted, in their respective states, to unusual and extraordinary means to control the political destinies and shape the domestic institutions of Kansas, in defiance of the wishes, and regardless of the rights, of the people of that territory, as guarantied by their organic law. Combinations, in one section of the Union, to stimulate an unnatural and false system of emigration, with the view of controlling the elections, and forcing the domestic institutions of the territory to assimilate to those of the non-slaveholding states, were followed, as might have been foreseen, by the use of similar means in the slaveholding states, to produce directly the opposite result. To these causes, and to these alone, in the opinion of your committee, may be traced the origin and progress of all the controversies and disturbances with which Kansas is now convulsed.
If these unfortunate troubles have resulted, as natural consequences, from unauthorized and improper schemes of foreign interference with the internal atfairs and domestic concerns of the territory, it is apparent that the remedy must be sought in a strict adherence to the principles, and rigid enforcement, of the provisions, of the organic law. In this connection, your committee feel sincere satisfaction in commending the messages and proclamation of the president of the United States, in which we have the gratifying assurance that the supremacy of the laws will be maintained; that rebellion will be crushed; that insurrection will be suppressed; that aggressive intrusion for the purpose of deciding elections, or any other purpose, will be repelled; that unauthorized intermeddling in the local concerns of the territory, both from adjoining and distant states, will be prevented; that the federal and local laws will be vindicated against all attempts of organized resistance; and that the people of the territory will be protected in the establishment of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroachments from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-government assured to them by the constitution and the organic law.
In view of these assurances, given under the conviction that the existing laws confer all authority necessary to the performance of these important du< ties, and that the whole available force of the United States will be exerted to the extent required for their performance, your committee repose in entire confidence that peace, and security, and law, will prevail in Kansas. If any further evidence were necessary to prove that all the collisions and difficulties in Kansas were produced by the schemes of foreign interference which have been developed in this report, in violation of the principles and in evasion of the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska act, it may be found in the fact that in Nebraska, to which the emigrant-aid societies did not extend their operations, and into which the stream of emigration was permitted to flow in its usual and natural channels, nothing has occurred to disturb the peace and harmony of the territory, while the principle of self-government, in obedience to the constitution, has had fair play, and is quietly working out its legitimate results.
It now only remains for your committee to respond to the two specific recommendations of the president, in his special message.
In compliance with the first recommendation, your committee ask leave to report a bill authorizing the legislature of the territory to provide by law for the election of delegates by the people, and the assembling of a convention to form a constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, so soon as it shall appear, by a census to be taken under the direction of the governor, by the authority of the legislature, that the territory contains ninety-three thousand four hundred and twenty inhabitants—that being the number required by the present ratio of representation for a member of congress.
In compliance with the other recommendation, your committee propose to offer to the appropriation bill an amendment appropriating such sum as shall be found necessary, by the estimates to be obtained, for the purpose indicated in the recommendation of the president.
All of which is respectfully submitted to the senate by your committee.
Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, the minority member of said committee, submitted the following
MINORITY REPORT.
Thirteen of the present prosperous states of this Union passed through the period of apprenticeship or pupilage of territorial training, under the guardianship of congress, preparatory to assuming their proud rank of manhood as sovereign and independent states. This period of their pupilage was, in every case, a period of the good offices of parent and child, in the kind relationship sustained between the national and the territorial government, and may be remembered with feelings of gratitude and pride. We have fallen on different
times. A territory of our government is now convulsed with violence and discord, and the whole family of our nation is in a state of exitement and anxiety. The national executive power is put in motion, the army in requisition, and congress is invoked for interference.
In this case, as in all others of difficulty, it becomes necessary to inquire what is the true cause of existing trouble, in order to apply effectual cure. It is but temporary palliatives to deal with the external and more obvious manifestations and developments, while the real, procuring cause lies unattended to, and uncorrected, and unremoved.
It is said that organized opposition to law exists in Kansas. That, if existing, may probably be suppressed by the president, by the use of the army; and so, too, may invasions by armed bodies from Missouri, if the executive be sincere in its efforts; but when this is done, while the cause of trouble remains, the results will continue with renewed and increased developments of danger.
Let us, then, look fairly and undisguisedly at this subject, in its true character and history. Wherein does this Kansas territory differ from all our other territories, which have been so peacefully and successfully carried through, and been developed into the manhood of independent states? Can that difference account for existing troubles? Can that difference, as a cause of trouble, be removed?
The first and great point of difference between the territorial government of Kansas and that of the thirteen territorial governments before mentioned, consists in the subject of slavery—the undoubted cause of present trouble.
The action of congress in relation to all those thirteen territories was conducted on a uniform and prudent principle, to wit: to settle, by a clear provision, the law in relation to the subject of slavery to be operative in the territory, while it remained such; not leaving it in any one of those cases to be a subject of controversy within the same, while in the plastic gristle of its youth. This was done by congress in the exercise of the same power which moulded the form of their organic laws, and appointed their executive and judiciary, and sometimes their legislative officers. It was the power provided in the constitution, in these words: "Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." Settling the subject of slavery while the country remained a territory, was no higher exercise of power in congress than the regulation of the functions of the territorial government, and actually appointing its principal functionaries. This practice commenced with this national government, and was continued, with uninterrupted uniformity, for more than sixty years. This practical contemporaneous construction of the constitutional power of this government is too clear to leave room for doubt, or opportunity for skepticism. The peace, prosperity, and success which attended this course, and the results which have ensued, in the formation and admission of the thirteen states therefrom, are most conclusive and satisfactory evidence, also, of the wisdom and prudence with which this power was exercised. Deluded must be that people who, in the pursuit of plausible theories, become deaf to the lessons, and blind to the results, of their own experience.
Let us next inquire by what rule of uniformity congress was governed, in the exercise of this power of determining the condition of each territory as to slavery, while remaining a territory, as manifested in those thirteen instances. An examination of our history will show that this was not done from time to time by agitation and local or party triumphs in congress. The rule pursued was uniform and clear; and whoever may have lost by it, peace and prosperity have been gained. That rule was this:
Where slavery was actually existing in a country to any considerable or general extent, it was (though somewhat modified as to further importation in some instances, as in Mississippi and Orleans territories) suffered to remain. The fact that it had been taken and existed there, was taken as an indication of its adaptation and local utility. Where slavery did not in fact exist to any appreciable extent, the same was, by congress, expressly prohibited; so that in either case the country settled up without difficulty or doubt as to the character of its institutions In no instance was this difficult and disturbing subject left to the people who had and who might settle in the territory, to be there an everlasting bone of contention, so long as the territorial government should continue. It was ever regarded, too, as a subject in which the whole country had an interest, and, therefore, improper for local legislation.
And though whenever the people of a territory come to form their own organic law, as an independent state, they would, either before or after their admission as a state, form and mould their institutions, as a sovereign state, in their own way, yet it must be expected, and has always proved true, that the state has taken the character her pupilage has prepared her for, as well in respect to slavery as in other respects. Hence, six of the thirteen states are free states, because slavery was prohibited in them by congress while territories, to wit: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Seven of the thirteen are slaveholding states, because slavery was allowed in them by congress while they were territories, to wit: Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri.
On the 6th of March, A. D. 1820, was passed by congress the act preparatory to the admission of the state of Missouri into the Union. Much controversy and discussion arose on the question whether a prohibition of slavery within said state should be inserted, and it resulted in this: that said state should be admitted without such prohibition, but that slavery should be forever prohibited in the rest of that country ceded to us by France lying north 36° 30' north latitude, and it was so done. This contract is known as the Missouri compromise. Under this arrangement Missouri was admitted as a slaveholding state, the same having been a slaveholding territory. Arkansas, south of the line, was formed into a territory, and slavery allowed therein, and afterwards admitted as a slaveholding state. Iowa was made a territory, north of the line, and, under the operation of the law, was settled up without slaves and admitted as a free state. The country now making the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in 1820 was almost or entirely uninhabited, and lay north of said line, and whatever settlers entered the same before 1854 did 10 under that law, forever forbidding slavery therein.
In 1854 congress passed an act establishing two new territories—Nebraska and Kansas—in this region of country, where slavery had been prohibited for more than thirty years; and instead of leaving said law against slavery in operation, or prohibiting or expressly allowing or establishing slavery, congress left the subject in said territories to be discussed, agitated and legislated on, from time to time, and the elections in said territories to be conducted with reference to that subject, from year to year, so long as they should remain territories; for whatever laws might be passed by the territorial legislatures on this subject, must be subject to change or repeal by those of the succeeding years. In most former territorial governments, it was provided by law that their laws were subject to the revision of congress, so that they would be made with caution. In these territories that was omitted.
The provision in relation to shivery in Nebraska and Kansas is as follows: "The eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union (which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories, as required by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures) is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into said territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act ot 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery."
Thus it was promulgated to the people of this whole country that here was a clear field for competition—an open course for the race of rivalship; the goal of which was the ultimate establishment of a sovereign state; and the prize, the reward of everlasting liberty and its institutions on the one hand, or the perpetuity of slavery and its concomitants on the other. It is the obvious duty of this government, while this law continues, to see this manifesto faithfully, and honorably, and honestly performed, even though its particular supporters may see cause of a result unfavorable to their hopes.
It is further to be observed, that in the performance of this novel experiment, it was provided that all white men who became inhabitants in Kansas were entitled to vote without regard to their time of residence, usually provided in other territories. Nor was this right of voting confined to American citizens, but included all such aliens as had declared, or would declare, on oath, their intention to become citizens. Thus was the proclamation to the world to become inhabitants of Kansas, and enlist in this great enterprise, by the force of numbers, by vote, to decide for it the great question. Was it to be expected that this great proclamation for the political tournament would be listened to with indifference and apathy? Was it prepared and presented in that spirit? Did it relate to a subject on which the people were cool or indifferent? A large part of the people of this country look on domestic slavery as "only evil, and that continually," alike to master and to slave, and to the community; to be left alone to the management or enjoyment of the people of the states where it exists, but not to be extended, more especially as it gives, or may give, political supremacy to a minority of the people of this country in the United States government. On the other hand, many of the people of another part of the United States regard slavery, if not in the abstract a blessing, at least as now existing a condition of society best for both white and black, while they exist together; while others regard it as no evil, but as the highest state of social condition. These consider that they cannot, with safety to their interests, permit political ascendency to be largely in the hands of those unfriendly to this peculiar institution. From these conflicting views, long and violent has been the controversy, and experience seems to show it interminable. Many, and probably a large majority of this nation, lovers of quiet, entertained the hope that, after 1850, the so-called compromise measures, even though not satisfactory to the free states, would be kept by their supporters, and made by them what they were professed to be, a finality on the subject of the extent and limitations of slave territory; more especially after the assurances contained in the inaugural address of President Pierce. This hope was fortified with the consideration that at that time congress had, by different provisions, settled by law the condition of freedom or slavery for all the territory of the United States. These hopes have been disappointed, and from this very provision for repose has been extracted a principle for disturbing the condition of things on which its foundation of finality rested—that is, the permanence and continuance of the then existing condition of legal provisions. The establishment of the territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, without a prohibition of slavery, was sustained by many on the ground that no such provision was required for its exclusion, as the condition of the country and its laws were a sufficient barrier; and therefore they sustained them, because it would complete the series, and finish the provisions as to slavery in all our territory, and make an end of controversy on that subject: yet, in 1854, it was insisted by the friends and supporters of the laws of 1850, and it is actually asserted in the law establishing the territorial government of Kansas, that the laws for new Mexico and Utah, being of the compromise measures, adopt and contain a principle utterly at war with their great and professed object of finality; and that, instead of completing and ending the provisions of congressional action for the territories as to slavery, it really declared a principle which unsettled all those where slavery had been prohibited, and rendered it proper, and only proper, to declare such prohibitions all "inoperative and void." The spirit and feeling which thus perverted those compromise laws, and made them the direct instrument of renewed disturbance, could not be expected then to leave the result to the decision of the people of Kansas with entire inactivity and indifference.
The slaveholding states, in 1820, secured the admission of Missouri as a slaveholding state, and all the region south of 36° 3O' to the same purpose, by agreeing and enacting that all north of that line should be forever free; and by this they obtained only a sufficient number of votes from the free states, as counted with theirs, to adopt it. In 1850 they agreed that if Utah and New-Mexico were made territories, without a prohibition of slavery, it would, with the laws already made for the rest of our territory, settle forever the whole subject. This proposition, for such a termination, also secured votes from the free states enough, with their own from the slaveholding states, to adopt it. In 1854, in utter disregard of these repeated contracts, both these arrangements were broken, and both these compromises disregarded, and all their provisions for freedom declared inoperative and void, by the vote of the slaveholding states, with a very few honorable exceptions, and a minority of the votes of the free states. After this extraordinary and inexcusable proceeding, it was not to be expected that the people of the slaveholding states would take no active measures to secure a favorable result by votes in the territory of Kansas. Neither could it be expected that the people of the free states, who regarded the act of 1853-4 as a double breach of faith, would sit down and make no effort, by legal means, to correct it.
It has been said that the repeal of this provision of the Missouri compromise, and breach of the compromise of 1850, should not be regarded as a measure of the slaveholding states, because it was presented by a senator from a free state.
The actions or votes of one or more individual men cannot give character to, or be regarded as fixing a measure on, their section or party. The only true or honest mode of determining whether any measure is that of any section or party, is to ascertain whether the majority of that section or party voted for it. Now, a large majority—indeed, the whole, with a few rare exceptions—of the representatives from the slaveholding states voted for that repeal. On the other hand, a majority of the representatives from the free states voted against it.
This subject of slavery in the territories, which has voilently agitated the country for many years, and which has been attempted to be settled twice by compromise, as before stated, does not remain settled. The Missouri compromise and the supposed finality by the acts of 1850, are scattered and dissolved by the votes of the slaveholding states; and it is not to be disguised that this uncalled for and disturbing measure has produced a spirit of resentment, from a feeling of its injustice, which, while the cause continues, will be difficult to allay.
This subject, then, which congress has been unable to settle in any such way as the slave states will sustain, is now turned over to those who have or shall become inhabitants of Kansas to arrange; and all men are invited to participate in the experiment, regardless of their character, political or religious views, or place of nativity.
Now, what is the right and the duty of the people of this country in relation to this matter? Is it not the right of all who believe in the blessings of shareholding, and regard it as the best condition of society, either to go to Kansas as inhabitants, and by their votes to help settle this good condition of that territory; or if they cannot so go and settle, is it not their duty, by all lawful means in their power, to promote this object by inducing others like-minded to go? This right becomes a duty to all who follow their convictions. All who regard an establishment of slavery in Kansas as best for that territory, or as necessary to their own safety by the political weight it gives in the national government, should use all lawful means to secure that result; and clearly, the inducing men to go there to become permanent inhabitants and voters, and to vote as often as the elections occur in favor of the establishment of slavery, and thus control the elections, and preserve it a slave state forever, is neither unlawful nor censurable. It is, and would be highly praiseworthy and commendable, because it is using lawful means to carry forward honest convictions of public good. All lawfully-associated effort to that end is equally commendable. Nor will the application of opprobrious epithets, and calling it propagandism, change its moral or legal character, from whatever quarter or source, official or otherwise, such epithets may come. Neither should they deter any man from peaceably performing his duty by following his honest convictions.
On the other hand, all those who have seen and realized the blessings of universal liberty, and believe that it can only be secured and promoted by the prohibition of domestic slavery, and that the elevation of honest industry can never succeed where servitude makes labor degrading, should, as in duty bound put forth all reasonable exertions to advance this great object, by lawful means, whenever permitted by the laws of their country. When, therefore, Kansas was presented, by law, as an open field for this experiment, and all were invited to enter, it became the right and duty of all such as desired, to go there as inhabitants for the purpose, by their numbers and by their votes lawfully cast, from time to time, to carry or control, in a legal way, the elections there for this object. This could only be lawfully effected by permanent residence, and continued and repeated effort, during the continuance of the territorial government, and permanently remaining there to form and preserve a free state constitution. All those who entertained the same sentiments, but were not disposed themselves to go, had the right and duty to use all lawful means to encourage and promote the object. If the purpose could be best effected by united efforts, by voluntary associations or corporations, or by state assistance, as proposed in some southern states, it was all equally lawful and laudable. This was not the officious intermeddling with the internal affairs of another nation, or state, or the territory of another people. The territory is the property of the nation, and is, professedly, open to the settlement and the institutions of every part of the United States. If lawful means, so extensive as to be effectual, were used to people it with a majority of inhabitants opposed to slavery, is now considered as a violation of, or an opposition to the law establishing the territory, then the declarations and provisions of that law were hut a premeditated delusion, which not only allowed such measures, but actually invited them by enacting that the largest number of the settlers should determine the condition of the country; thus inviting efforts for numbers. Such an invitation must have been expected to produce such efforts en both sides.
It now becomes necessary to inquire what has in fact taken place. If violence has taken place as the natural, and perhaps unavoidable, consequences of the nature of the experiment, bringing into dangerous contact and collision inflammable elements, it was the vice of a mistaken law, and immediate measures should be taken by congress to correct such law. If force and violence have been substituted for peaceful measures there, legal provisions should be made and executed to correct all the wrong such violence has produced, and to prevent their recurrence, and thus secure a fair fulfillment of the experiment by peaceful means, as originally professed and presented in the law.
A succient statement of the origin and progress of the material events in Kansas is this: After the passage of this law, establishing the territory of Kansas, a large body of settlers rapidly entered into said territory with a view to permanent inhabitancy therein. Most of these were from the free states of the west and north, who probably intended by their votes and influence to establish there a free state, agreeable to the law which invited them. Some part of those from the northern states had been encouraged and aided in this enterprise by the Emigrant Aid Society formed in Massachusetts, which put forth some exertions in this laudable object, by open and public measures, in providing facilities for transportation to all peaceable citizens who desired to become permanent settlers in said territory, and providing therein hotels, mills, etc., for the public accomodation of that new country.
The governor of Kansas, having, in pursuance of law, divided the territory into districts, and procured a census thereof, issued his proclamation for the election of a legislative assembly therein, to take place on the 30th day of March, 1855, and directed how the same should be conducted, and the returns made to him agreeable to the law establishing said territory. On the day of election, large bodies of armed men from the state of Missouri appeared at the polls in most of the districts, and by most violent and tumultuous carriage and demeanor overawed the defenseless inhabitants, and by their own votes elected a large majority of the members of both houses of said assembly. On the returns of said election being made to the governor, protests and objections were made to him in relation to a part of said districts; and, as to them, he set aside such, and such only, as by the returns appeared to be bad. In relation to others, covering, in all, a majority of the two houses, equally vicious in fact, but apparently good by formal returns, the inhabitants thereof, borne down by said violence and intimidation, scattered and discouraged, and laboring under apprehensions of personal violence, refrained and desisted from presenting any protest to the governor in relation thereto; and he, then uninformed in relation thereto, issued certificates to the members who appeared by said formal returns to have been elected.
In relation to those districts which the governor so set aside, orders were by him issued for new elections In one of these districts the same proceedings were repeated by men from Missouri, and in others not, and certificates were issued to the persons elected.
This legislative assembly, so elected, assembled at Pawnee, on the second day of July, 1855, that being the time and place for holding said meeting, as fixed by the governor, by authority of law. On assembling, the said houses proceeded to set aside and reject those members so elected on said second election, except in the district where the men from Missouri had, at said election, chosen the same persons they had elected at the said first election, and they admitted all of the said first elected members.
A legislative assembly, so created by military force, by a foreign invasion, in violation of the organic law, was but a usurpation. No act of its own, no act or neglect of the governor, could legalize or sanctify it. Its own decisions as to its own legality are like its laws, but the fruits of its own usurpation, which no governor could legitimate.
They passed an act altering the place of the temporary seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, on the border of, and in near proximity to Missouri. This act the governor regarded as a violation of the organic law establishing the territory, which fixed the temporary seat of government, and prohibited the legislative assembly from doing anything inconsistent with said act. He, therefore, and for that cause, vetoed said bill; but said assembly repassed the same by a two-thirds majority, notwithstanding said veto, and removed to said Shawnee Mission. They then proceeded to pass laws, and the governor, in writing, declined further to recognize them as a legitimate assembly, sitting at that place. They continued passing laws there from the 16th day of July to the 31st day of August, 1855.
On the 15th day of August, the governor of said territory was dismissed from office, and the duties devolved upon the secretary of the territory; and, how many of the laws passed with his official approbation does not appear, the laws as now presented being without date or authentication.
As by the law of congress organizing said territory it was expressly provided that the people of the territory were to be "left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," and among these institutions slavery is included, it was, of course, implied that that subject was to be open and free to public and private discussion in all its bearings, rights, and relationships. Among these must, of course, be the question, what was the state of the existing laws, and the modifications that might be required on that subject? The law had declared that its "true intent and meaning was not to legislate slavery into the territory, or exclude it therefrom." This would, of course, leave to that people the inquiry, what, then, are the existing rights under the constitution? Can slaves be holden in the absence of any law on the subject? This question, about which so much difference of opinion exists, and which congress and the courts have never settled, was thus turned over to the people there, to discuss and settle for themselves. This territorial legislature, so created by force from Missouri, utterly refused to permit discussion on the subject; but, assuming that slavery already existed there, and that neither congress nor the people in the territory, under the authority of congress, had or could prohibit it, passed a law which, if enforced, utterly prohibits all discussion of the question. The eleventh and twelfth sections of that act are as follows:
"Sec. 11. If any person print, write, introduce into, publish or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, published or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing into, printing, publishing or circulating within this territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magazine, hand-bill or circular, containing any statements, arguments, opinions, sentiments, doctrines, advice or inuendo, calculated to promote a disorderly, dangerous or rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of their masters or to resist their authority, he shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished by imprisonment and hard labor for a term not less than five years.
"Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into this territory, written, printed, published or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years."
And further providing, that no person "conscientiously opposed to holding slaves" shall sit as a juror in the trial of any cause founded on a breach of the foregoing law. They further provided, that all officers and attorneys should be sworn not only to support the constitution of the United States, but also to support and sustain the organic law of the territory, and the fugitive slave laws; and that any person offering to vote shall be presumed to be entitled to vote until the contrary is shown, and if any one, when required, shall refuse to take oath to sustain the fugitive-slave laws, he shall not be permitted to vote. Although they passed a law that none but an inhabitant, who had paid a tax, should vote, yet they required no time of residence necessary, and provided for the immediate payment of a poll-tax; so providing, in effect, that on the eve of an election the people of a neighboring state could come in, in unlimited numbers, and, by taking up a residence of a day or an hour, pay a poll-tax, and thus become legal voters, and then, after voting, return to their own state. They thus, in practical effect, provided for the people of Missouri to control elections at their pleasure, and permitted such only of the real inhabitants of the territory to vote as are friendly to the holding of slaves.
They permitted no election of any of the officers in the territory to be made by the people thereof, but created the offices and filled them, or appointed officers to fill them for long periods, and provided that the next anuual election should be holden in October, 1856, and the assembly to meet in Jauuary, 1857; so that none of these laws could be changed, until the lower house might be changed, in 1856; but the council, which is elected for two years, could not be changed so as to allow a change of the laws or officers until the session of 1858, however much the inhabitants of the territory might desire it.
These laws, made by an assembly created by a foreign force, are but a manifestation of the spirit of oppression which was the parent of the whole transaction. No excuse can be found for it in the pretense that the inhabitants had carried with them into said territory a quantity of Sharp's rifles—first, because that, if true, formed no excuse; secondly, it is untrue, as their Sharp's rifles were only obtained afterwards, and entirely for the purpose of self-defense, the necessity for which, this invasion and other acts of violence and threats clearly demonstrated. These laws were obviously made to oppress and drive out all who were inclined to the exclusion of slavery; and if they remained, to silence them on this subject, and subject them to the will and control of the people of Missouri. These are the laws which the president says must be enforced by the army and the whole power of the nation. The people of Kansas, thus invaded, subdued, oppressed, and insulted, seeing their territorial government (such only in form) perverted into an engine to crush them in the dust, and to defeat and destroy the professed object of their organic law, by depriving them of the "perfect freedom" therein provided, and finding no ground to hope for rights in that organization, they proceeded, under the guaranty of the United States constitution, "peaceably to assemble to petition the government for the redress of (their) grievances." They saw no earthly source of relief bat in the formation of a state government by the people, and the acceptance and ratification thereof by congress.
In this view of the subject, in the first part of August, 1855, a call was published in the public papers for a meeting of the citizens of Kansas, irrespective of party, to meet at Lawrence, in said territory, on the 15th of said August, to take into consideration the propriety of calling a convention of the people of the whole territory, to consider that subject. That meeting was held on the 15th day of August last, and it proceeded to call such convention of delegates to be elected and to assemble at Topeka, in said territory, on the 19th day of September, 1855, not to form a constitution, but to consider the propriety of calling, formally, a convention for that purpose.
The meeting was duly held, and resulted in the call for a constitutional convention.
Delegates were elected agreeably to a proclamation issued, and they met at Topeka on the fourth Tuesday in October, 1855, and formed a constitution, which was submitted to the people, and was ratified by them by vote in the districts. An election of state officers and members of the state legislature has been had, and a representative to congress elected, and it is intended to proceed to the election of senators, with the view to present the same, with the constitution, to congress for admission into the Union.
It now becomes proper to inquire what should be done by congress; for we are informed by the president, in substance, that he has no power to correct a usurpation, and that the laws, even though made by usurped authority, must be by him enforced and executed, even with military force. The measures of redress should be applied to the true cause of the difficulty. Thia obviously lies in the repeal of the clause for freedom in the act of 1820, and therefore the true remedy lies in the entire repeal of the act of 1854, which effected it. Let this be done with frankness and magnanimity, and Kansas be organized anew, as a free territory, and all will be put right.
Treating this grievance in Kansas with ingenious excuses, with neglect or contempt, or riding over the oppressed with an army, and dragooning them into submission, will make no satisfactory termination. Party success may at times be temporarily secured by adroit devices, plausible pretenses, and partisan address; but the permanent preservation of this Union can be maintained only by frankness and integrity. Justice maybe denied where it ought to be granted; power may perpetuate that vassalage which violence and usurpation have produced; the subjugation of white freemen may be necessary, that African slavery may succeed; but such a course must not be expected to produce peace and satisfaction in our country, so long as the people retain any proper sentiment of justice, liberty, and law.
On the 19th of March, the house of representatives passed a resolution providing for a committee of three members of the house, to be sent to Kansas, to inquire into and collect evidence in regard to the troubles in that territory, and to report the same to the house. William A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, were appointed the committee of investigation. These gentlemen proceeded to Kansas and spent several weeks in taking testimony, which, when printed, formed a volume of twelve hundred pages. Oar limits confine us to such extracts from the report as will furnish a brief history of the events in the territory subsequent to its organization.
EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.
Your committee deem it their duty to state, as briefly as possible, the principal facts proven before them. When the act to organize the territory of Kansas was passed on day of May, 1854, the greater portion of its eastern border was included in Indian reservations not open for settlement, and there were but few white settlers in any portion of the territory. Its Indian population was rapidly decreasing, while many emigrants from different parts of our country were anxiously waiting the extinction of the Indian title, and the establishment of a territorial government, to seek new homes in its fertile prairies. It cannot be doubted that if its condition as a free territory had been left undisturbed by congress, its settlement would have been rapid, peaceful, and prosperous. Its climate, soil, and its easy access to the older settlements would have made it the favored course for the tide of emigration constantly flowing to the West, and by this time it would have been admitted into the Union as a free state, without the least sectional excitement. If so organized, none but the kindest feelings could have existed between it and the adjoining state. Their mutual interests and intercourse, instead of, as now, endangering the harmony of the Union, would have strengthened the ties of national brotherhood . The testimony clearly shows, that before the proposition to repeal the Missouri compromise was introduced into congress, the people of western Missouri appeared indifferent to the prohibition of slavery in the territory, and neither asked nor desired its repeal.
When, however, the prohibition was removed by the action of congress, the aspect of affairs entirely changed. The whole country was agitated by the reopening of a controversy which conservative men in different sections hoped had been settled, in every state and territory, by some law beyond the danger of repeal. The excitement which has always accompanied the discussion of the slavery question was greatly increased by the hope on the one hand of extending slavery into a region from which it had been excluded by law, and on the other by a sense of wrong done by what was regarded as a dishonor of a national compact. This excitement was naturally transferred into the border counties of Missouri and the territory, as settlers favoring free or slave institutions moved into it. A new difficulty soon occurred. Different constructions were put upon the organic law. It was contended by the one party that the right to hold slaves in the territory existed, and that neither the people nor the territorial legislature could prohibit slavery—that the power was alone possessed by the people when they were authorized to form a state government. It was contended that the removal of the restriction virtually established slavery in the territory. This claim was urged by many prominent men in western Missouri, who actively engaged in the affairs of the territory. Every movement of whatever character, which tended to establish free institutions, was regarded as an interference with their rights.
Within a few days after the organic law passed, and as soon as its passage could be known on the border, leading citizens of Missouri crossed into the territory, held squatter meetings, and then returned to their homes. Among their resolutions are the following:
Similar resolutions were passed in various parts of the territory, and by meetings in several counties of Missouri. Thus the first effect of the repeal of the restriction against slavery was to substitute the resolves of squatter meetings, composed almost exclusively of citizens of a single state, for the deliberate action of congress, acquiesced in for thirty-five years.
This unlawful interference has been continued iu every important event in the history of the territory; every election has been controlled not by the actual settlers, but by citizens of Missouri, and as a consequence every officer in the territory, from constables to legislators, except those appointed by the president, owe their positions to non-resident voters. None have been elected by the settlers, and your committee have been unable to find that any political power whatever, however unimportant, has been exercised by the people of the territory. In October, A. D. 1854, Gov A. II. Reeder and the other officers appointed by the president, arrived in the territory, Settlers from all parts of the country were moving in in great numbers, making their claims and building their cabins. About the same time, and before any election was or could be bold in the territory, a secret political society was formed in the state of Missouri. It was known by different names, such as "Social Band," "Friends' Society," "Blue Lodge," "The Sons of the South." Its members were bound together by secret oaths, and they had passwords, signs, and grips, by which the; were known to each other. Penalties were imposed for violating the rules and secrets of the order. Written minutes were kept of the proceedings of the lodges, and the different lodges were connected together by an effective organization. It embraced great numbers of the citizens of Missouri, and was extended into other slave states and into the territory. Its avowed purpose was not only to extend slavery into Kansas, but also into other territory of the United States, and to form a union of all the friends of that institution. Its plan of operating was to organize and send men to vote at the elections in the territory, to collect money to pay their expenses, and, if necessary, to protect them in voting. It also proposed to induce pro-slavery men to emigrate into the territory, to aid and sustain them while there, and to elect none to office but those friendly to their views. This dangerous society was controlled by men who avowed their purpose to extend slavery into the territory at all hazards, and was altogether the most effective instrument in organizing the subsequent armed invasions and forays. In its lodges in Missouri the affairs of Kansas were discussed, the force necessary to control the election was divided into bands, and leaders selected, means were collected, and signs and badges were agreed upon.
The first election was for a delegate to congress. It was appointed for the 29th of November, 1854. The governor divided the territory into seventeen election districts; appointed judges and prescribed proper rules for the election. In the Ist, IIId, VIIIth, IXth, Xth, XIIth, XIIIth, and XVIIth districts, there appears to have been but little if any fraudulent voting.
The election in the lid district was held at the village of Douglas, nearly fifty miles from the Missouri line. On the day before the election, large companies of men came into the district in wagons and on horseback, and declared that they were from the state of Missouri, and were going to Douglas to vote. On the morning of the election they gathered around the house where the election was to be held. Two of the judges appointed by the governor did not appear, and other judges were elected by the crowd. All then voted. In order to make a pretense of right to vote, some persons of the company kept a pretended register of squatter claims, on which any one could enter his name and then assert he had a claim in the territory. A citizen of the district who was himself a candidate for delegate to congress, was told by one of the strangers that he would be abused and probably killed if he challenged a vote. He was seized by the collar, called a d—d abolitionist, and was compelled to seek protection in the room with the judges. About the time the polls were closed, these strangers mounted their horses and got into their wagons and cried out— "All aboard for Westport and Kansas City." A number were recognized as residents of Missouri, and among them was Samuel H. Woodson, a leading lawyer of Independence. Of those whose names are on the poll-books, 35 were resident settlers and 226 were non-residents.
The election in the IVth district was held at Dr. Chapman's, over 40 miles from the Missouri state line. It was a thinly-settled region, containing but 4T votes in February, 1855, when the census was taken. On the day before the election, from 100 to 150 citizens of Cass and Jackson counties, Mo., came into the district, declaring their purpose to vote, and that they were bound to make Kansas a slave state, if they did it at the point of the sword. Persons of the party on the way drove each a stake in the ground and called it a claim—and in one case several names were put on one stake. The party of strangers camped all night near where the election was to be held, and in the morning were at the election-polls and voted. One of their party got drunk, and to get rid of Dr. Chapman, a judge of the election, they sent for him to come and see a sick man, and in his absence filled his place with another judge, who was not sworn. They did not deny or conceal that they were residents of Missouri, and many of them were recognized as such by others. They declared that they were bound to make Kansas a slave state. They insisted upon their right to vote in the territory if they were in it one hour. After the election, they again returned to their homes in Missouri, camping over night on the way.
We find upon the poll-books 161 names; of these not over 30 resided in the territory; 131 were non-residents.
But few settlers attended the election in the Vth district, the district being large and the settlement scattered. 82 votes were cast; of these between 20 and 30 were settlers, and the residue were citizens of Missouri. They passed into the territory by way of the Santa Fe road and by the residence of Dr. Westfall, who then lived on the western line of Missouri. Some little excitement arose at the polls as to the legality of their voting, but they did vote for General Whitfield, and said they intended to make Kansas a slave state—and that they had claims in the territory. Judge Teazle, judge of the court in Jackson county, Missouri, was present, but did not vote. He said he did not intend to vote, but came to see that others voted After the election, the Missourians returned the way they came.
The election in the VIth district was held at Fort Scott, in the southeast part of the territory and near the Missouri line. A party of about one hundred men, from Cass and the counties in Missouri south of it, went into the territory, traveling about 45 miles, most of them with their wagons and tents, and camping out. They appeared at the place of election. Some attempts were made to swear them, but two of the judges were prevailed upon not to do so, and none were sworn, and as many as chose voted. There were but tew resident voters at the polls. The settlement was sparse—about 25 actual settlers voted out of 105 votes cast, leaving 80 illegal votes. After the voting was over the Missourians went to their wagons and commenced Leaving for home. The most shameless fraud practiced upon the rights of the settlers at this election was in the VIIth district. It is a remote settlement, about 75 miles from the Missouri line, and contained in February, A. D. 1855, three months afterwards, when the census was taken, about 53 voters; and yet the poll-books show that 604 votes were cast. The election was held at the house of Frey McGee, at a place called "110." But few of the actual settlers were present at the polls. A witness who formerly resided in Jackson county, Missouri, and was well acquainted with the citizens of that county, says that he saw a great many wagons and tents at the place of election, and many individuals he knew from Jackson county. He was in their tents and conversed with some of them, and they told him they had come with the intention of voting. He went to the polls intending to vote for Flennekin, and his ticket being of a different color from the rest, his vote was challenged by Frey McGee, who had been appointed one of the judges but did not serve. Lemuel Ralstone, a citizen of Missouri, was acting in his place. The witness then challenged the vote of a young man by the name of Nolan, whom he knew to reside in Jackson county. Finally the thing was hushed up, as the witness had a good many friends there from that county, and it might lead to a fight if he challenged any more votes. Both voted, and then went down to their camp. He there saw many of his old acquaintances whom he knew had voted at the election in August previous in Missouri, and who still resided in that state. By a careful comparison of the poll-lists with the census-rolls, we find but 12 names on the poll-book who were voters when the census was taken three months afterwards, and we are satisfied that not more than 20 legal votes could have been polled at that election. The only residents who are known to have voted are named by the witness, and are 13 in number—thus leaving 584 illegal votes cast in a remote district, where the settlers within many miles were acquainted with each other.
The total number of white inhabitants in the XIth district in the month of February, A. D. 1855, including men, women, and children, was 36, of whom 24 were voters—yet the poll-lists in this district show that 245 votes were cast at this election. For reasons stated hereafter in regard to the election on the 30th of March, your committee were unable to procure the attendance of witnesses from this district. From the records, it clearly appears that the votes cast could not have been by lawful resident voters. The best test, in the absence of direct proof, by which to ascertain the number of legal votes cast, is by a comparison of the census-roll with the poll-book—by which it appears that but 7 resident settlers voted, and 238 votes were illegally and fraudulently given.
The election in the XIVth district was held at the house of Benjamin Harding, a few miles from the town of St. Joseph, Missouri. Before the polls were opened, a large number of citizens of Buchanan county, Missouri, and among them many of the leading citizens of St. Joseph, were at the place of voting, and made a majority of the company present. At the time appointed by the governor for opening the polls, two of the judges were not there, and it became the duty of the legal voters present to select other judges. The judge who was present suggested the name of Mr. Waterson as one of the judges, but the crowd voted down the proposition. Some discussion then arose as to the right of non-residents to vote for judges, during which Mr. Bryant was nominated and elected by the crowd. Some one nominated Colonel John Scott as the other judge, who was then and is now a resident of St. Joseph. At that time he was the city attorney of that place, and so continued until this spring, but he claimed that the night before he had come to the house of Mr. Bryant, and had engaged boarding for a month, and considered himself a resident of Kansas on that ground. The judges appointed by the governor refused to put the nomination of Colonel Scott to vote, because he was not a resident. After some discussion, Judge Leonard, a citizen of Missouri, stepped forward and put the vote himself; and Mr. Scott was declared by him as elected by the crowd, and served as a judge of election that day. After the election was over he returned to St. Joseph, and never since has resided in the territory. It is manifest that this election of a non-resident lawyer as a judge was imposed upon the settlers by the citizens of the state. When the board of judges was thus completed, the voting proceeded, but the effect of the rule adopted by the judges allowed many, if not a majority, of the non-residents to vote. They claimed that their presence on the ground, especially when they had a claim in the territory, gave them a right to vote—under that construction of the law they readily, when required, swore they were "residents" and then voted. By this evasion, as near as your committee can ascertain from the testimony, as many as 50 illegal votes were cast in this district out of 153, the whole number polled.
The election in the XVth district was held at Penseman's, on Stranger Creek, a few miles from Weston, Missouri. On the day of the election a large number of citizens of Platte county, but chiefly from Weston and Platte city, came in small parties, in wagons and on horseback, to the polls. Among them were several leading citizens of that town, and the names of many of them are given by the witnesses. They generally insisted upon their right to vote, on the ground that every man having a claim in the territory could vote, no matter where he lived. All voted who chose. No man was challenged or sworn. Some of the residents did not vote. The purpose of the strangers voting was declared to be to make Kansas a slave state. We find by the poll-books that 306 votes were cast—of these we find but 57 are on the census-rolls as legal voters in February following. Your committee is satisfied from the testimony that not over 100 of those who voted had any right so to do, leaving at least 206 illegal votes cast.
The election in the XVIth district was held at Leavenworth. It was then a small village of three or four houses, located on the Delaware Reservation. There were but comparatively few settlers then in the district, but the number rapidly increased afterward. On the day before and on the day of election, a great many citizens of Platte, Clay, and Ray counties crossed the river—most of them camping in tents and wagons about the town, "like a camp-meeting." They were in companies or messes of ten to fifteen in each, and numbered in all several hundred. They brought their own provisions and cooked it themselves, and were generally armed. Many of them were known by the witnesses, and their names given, and their names are found upon the poll-books. Among them were several persons of influence where they resided in Missouri, who held, or had held, high official positions in that state. They claimed to be residents of the territory, from the fact that they were then present and in upon the right to vote, and did vote. Their avowed purpose in doing so was to make Kansas a slave state. These strangers crowded around the polls, and it was with great difficulty that the settlers could get to the polls. One resident attempted to get to the polls in the afternoon, but was crowded out and pulled back. He then went outside of the crowd and hurrahed for General Whitfield, and some of those who did not know him said, "that's a good pro-slavery man," and lifted him up over their heads so that he crawled on their heads and put in his vote. A person who saw from the color of his ticket that it was not for General Whitfield, cried out, "He is a damned abolitionist—let him down;" and they dropped him. Others were passed to the polls in the same way, and others crowded up the best way they could. After this mockery of an election was over, the non-residents returned to their homes in Missouri. Of the 312 votes cast, not over 150 were by legal voters.
Thus your committee find that in this the first election in the territory, a very large majority of votes were cast by citizens of the state of Missouri, in violation of the organic law of the territory.
In January and February, 1855, the governor caused an enumeration to be taken of the inhabitants and qualified voters in the territory. There were 2,905 voters; 8,501 inhabitants.
On the day the census was completed, the governor issued his proclamation for an election to be held on the 30th of March, A. D. 1855, for members of the legislative assembly of the territory. By an organized movement in Missouri, which extended from Andrew county on the north to Jasper county in the south, and as far eastward as Boone and Cole counties, companies of men were arranged in regular parties and sent into every council district in the territory, and into every representative district but one. The numbers were so distributed as to control the election in each district. They went to vote, and with the avowed design to make Kansas a slave state. They were generally armed and equipped, carried with them their own provisions and tents, and so marched into the territory. The details of this invasion, from the mass of the testimony taken by your committee, are so voluminous that we can here state but the leading facts elicited. If the governor's proclamation had been observed, a just and fair election would have resulted.
The company of persons who marched into Lawrence district, collected in Ray, Howard, Carroll, Boone, La Fayette, Randolph, Saline, and Cass counties, in the state of Missouri. Their expenses were paid—those who could not come contributing provisions, wagons, etc. Provisions were deposited fot those who were expected to come to Lawrence, in the house of "William Lykins, and were distributed among the Missourians after they arrived there. The evening before and the morning of the day of election, about 1,000 men from the above counties arrived at Lawrence, and encamped in a ravine a short distance from town, near the place of voting. They came in wagons—of which there were over one hundred—and on horseback, under the command of Col. Samuel Young, of Boone county, Missouri, and Claibourne F. Jackson, of Missouri. They were armed with guns, rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives, and had tents, music, and flags with them. They brought with them two pieces of artillery loaded with musket-balls. On their way to Lawrence, some of them met Mr. N. B. Blauton, who had been appointed one of the judges of election by Gov. Reeder, and after learning from him that he considered it his duty to demand an oath from them as to their place of residence, first attempted to bribe, and then threatened him with hanging, in order to induce him to dispense with that oath. In consequence of these threats, he did not appear at the polls the next morning to act as judge.
The evening before the election, while in camp, the Missourians were called together at the tent of Captain Claibourne F. Jackson, and speeches were made to them by Col. Young and others, calling for volunteers to go to other districts where there were not Missourians enough to control the election, and there were more at Lawrence than were needed there. Many volunteered to go, and the morning of the election, several companies, from 150 to 200 men each, went off to Tecumseh, Hickory Point, Bloomington, and other places. On the morning of the election, the Missourians came over to the place of voting from their camp, in bodies of one hundred at a time. Mr. Blanton not appearing, another judge was appointed in his place—Col. Young claiming that, as the people of the territory had two judges, it was nothing more than right that the Missourians should have the other one, to look after their interests; and Robert E. Cummins was elected in Blanton's stead, because he considered that every man had a right to vote if he had been in the territory but an hour. The Missourians brought their tickets with them; but not having enough, they had three hundred more printed in Lawrence on the evening before and the day of election. They had white ribbons in their button-holes to distinguish themselves from the settlers.
When the voting commenced, the question of the legality of the vote of a Mr. Page was raised. Before it was decided, Col. Samuel Young stepped up to the window where the votes were received, and said he would settle the matter. The vote of Mr. Page was withdrawn, and Col. Young offered to vote. He refused to take the oath prescribed by the governor, but swore he was a resident of the territory, upon which his vote was received. He told Mr. Abbott, one of the judges, when asked if he intended to make Kansas his future home, that it was none of his business; that if he were a resident then, he should ask no more. After his vote was received, Col. Young got up in the window-sill and announced to the crowd that he had been permitted to vote, and they could all come up and vote. lie told the judges that there was no use in swearing the others, as they would all swear as he had done. After the other judges concluded to receive Col. Young's vote, Mr. Abbott resigned as judge of election, and Mr. Benjamin was elected in his place.
The polls were so much crowded until late in the evening, that, fur a time, when the men had voted, they were obliged to get out by being hoisted up on the roof of the building where the election was being held, and pass oat over the house. Afterward a passage-way through the crowd was made by two lines of men being formed, through which the voters could get up to the polls. Col. Young asked that the old men be allowed to go up first and vote, as they were tired with the traveling, and wanted to get back to camp.
The Missourians sometimes came up to the polls in procession, two by two, and voted.
During the day the Missourians drove off the ground some of the citizens, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Bond, and Mr. Willis. They threatened to shoot Mr. Bond, and a crowd rushed after him threatening him, and as he ran from them some shots were fired at him as he jumped off the bank of the river and made his escape. The citizens of the town went over in a body, late in the afternoon, when the polls had become comparatively clear, and voted.
Before the voting had commenced, the Missourians said, if the judges appointed by the governor did not receive their votes, they would choose other judges. Some of them voted several times, changing their hats or coats and coming up to the window again. They said they intended to vote first, and after they had got through, then the others could vote. Some of them claimed a right to vote under the organic act, from the fact that their mere presence in the territory constituted them residents, though they were from Wisconsin, and had homes in Missouri. Others said they had a right to vote, because Kansas belonged to Missouri, and people from the east had no right to settle in the territory and vote there. They said they came to the territory to elect a legislature to suit themselves, as the people of the territory and persons from the east and north wanted to elect a legislature that would not suit them. They said they had a right to make Kansas a slave state, because the people of the north had sent persons out to make it a free state. Some claimed that they had heard that the emigrant aid society had sent men out to be at the election, and they came to offset their votes; but the most of them made no such claim. Col. Young said he wanted the citizens to vote in order to give the election some show of fairness. The Missourians said there would be no difficulty if the citizens did not interfere with their voting, but they were determined to vote—peaceably, if they could, but vote any how. They said each one of them was prepared for eight rounds without loading, and would go the ninth round with the butcher-knife. Some of them said that by voting in the territory, they would deprive themselves of the right to vote in Missouri for twelve months afterward. The Missourians began to leave the afternoon of the day of election, though some did not go home until the next morning. In many cases, when a wagon-load had voted, they immediately started for home. On their way home, they said if Gov. Reeder did not sanction the election, they would hang him.
The citizens of the town of Lawrence, as a general thing were not armed on the day of election, though some had revolvers, but not exposed, as were the arms of the Missourians. They kept a guard about the town, the night after the election, in consequence of the threats of the Missourians, in order to protect it. The pro-slavery men of the district attended the nominating conventions of thefree-state men, and voted for, and secured the nominations of, the men they considered the most obnoxious to the free-state party, in order to cause dissension in that party.
Quite a number of settlers came into the district before the day of election, and after the census was taken. According to the census returns, there were then in the district 369 legal voters. Of those whose names are on the census returns, 177 are to be found on the poll-books of the 30th of March, 1855. Messrs. Ladd, Babcock, and Pratt testify to 55 names on the poll books of persons they knew to have settled in the district after the census was taken and before the election. A number of persons came into the territory in March, before the election, from the northern and eastern states, intending to settle, who were in Lawrence on the day of election. At that time, many of them had selected no claims, and had no fixed place of residence. Such were not entitled to vote. Many of them became dissatisfied with the country. Others were disappointed in its political condition, and the price and demand for labor, and returned. Whether any such voted at the election, is not clearly shown, but from the proof, it is probable that in the latter part of the day, after the great body of the Missourians had voted, some did go to the polls. The number was not over fifty. These voted the free-state ticket. The whole number of names appearing on the poll-list is 1034. After full examination, we are satisfied that not over 232 of these were legal voters, and 802 were non-resident and illegal voters. This district is strongly in favor of making Kansas a free state, and there is no doubt but that the free-state candidates would have been elected by large majorities, if none but the actual settlers had voted. At the preceding election in November, 1854, when none but legal votes were polled, general Whitfield, who received the full strength of the proslavery party, got but 46 votes.
In Bloomington district on the morning of the election, the judges appointed by the governor appeared and opened the polls. Their names were Harrison Burson, Nathaniel Ramsay, and Mr. Ellison. The Missourians began to come in early in the morning, some 500 or 600 of them, in wagons and in carriages, and on horseback, under the lead of Samuel J. Jones, then postmaster of Westport, Missouri, Claibourne F. Jackson, and Mr. Steely, of Independence, Missouri. They were armed with double-barreled guns, rifles, bowie-knives and pistols, and had flags hoisted. They held a sort of informal election, off at one side, at first for governor of Kansas, and shortly afterwards announced Thomas Johnson, of Shawnee Missions, elected governor. The polls had been opened but a short time, when Mr. Jones marched with the crowd up to the window and demanded that they should be allowed to vote without swearing as to their residence. After some noisy and threatening talk, Claibourne F. Jackson addressed the crowd, Baying they bad come there to vote, that they had a right to vote if they had been there but five minutes, and he was not willing to go home without voting; which was received ith cl] Jackson then called upon them to form into little bands of fifteen or twenty, which they did, and went to an ox wagon filled with guns, which were distributed among them, and proceeded to load some of them on the ground. In pursuance of Jackson's request, they tied white tape or ribbon in their buttonholes to distinguish them from the "abolitionists." They again demanded that the judges should resign, and on their refusing to do so, smashed in tie-window, sash and all, and presented their pistols and guns to them, threatening to shoot them. Some one on the outside cried out to them not to shoot, as there were pro-slavery men in the room with the judges. They then put a pry under the corner of the house, which was a log house, and lifted it up a few inches and let it fall again, but desisted upon being told there were pros-lavery men in the house. During this time the crowd repeatedly demanded to be allowed to vote without being sworn, and Mr. Ellison, one of the judges, expressed himself willing, but the other two judges refused; thereupon a body of men, headed by "Sheriff Jones," rushed into the judges' room with cocked pistols and drawn bowie-knives in their hands, and approached Burson and Ramsay. Jones pulled out his watch, and said he would give them five minutes to resign in, or die. When the five minutes had expired and the judges did not resign, Jones said he would give them another minute, and no more. Ellison told his associates that if they did not resign, there would be one hundred shots fired in the room in less than fifteen minutes; and then snatching up the ballot-box, ran out into the crowd, holding up the ballot-box and hurrahing for Missouri. About that time Burson and Ramsay were called out by their friends, and not suffered to return. As Mr. Burson went out, he put the ballot poll-books in his pocket, and took them with him; and as he was going out, Jones snatched some papers away from him, and shortly afterward came out himself holding them up, crying "hurrah for Missouri." After he discovered they were not the poll-books, he took a party of men with him and started off to take the poll-books from Burson. Mr. Burson saw them coming, and he gave the books to Mr. Umberger, and told him to start off in another direction, so as to mislead Jones and his party. Jones and his party caught Mr. Umberger, took the poll-books away from him, and Jones took him up behind him on a horse, and carried him back a prisoner. After Jones and his party had taken Umberger back, they went to the house of Mr. Ramsay and took judge John A. Wakefield prisoner, and carried him to the place of election, and made him get up on a wagon and make them a speech; after which they put a white ribbon in his button-hole and let him go. They then chose two new judges, and proceeded with the election.
They also threatened to kill the judges if they did not receive their votes without swearing them, or else resign. They said no man should vote who would submit to be sworn—that they would kill any one who would offer to do so—"shoot him," "cut his guts out," etc. They said no man should vote this day unless he voted an open ticket, and was "all right on the goose," and that if they could not vote by fair means, they would by foul means. They said they had as much right to vote, if they had been in the territory two minutes, as if they had been there for two years, and they would vote. Some of the citizens who were about the window, but had not voted when the crowd of Missourians marched up there, upon attempting to vote, were driven back by the mob, or driven off. One of them, Mr. J. M. Marcy, was asked if he would take the oath, and upon his replying that he would if the judges required it, he was dragged through the crowd away from the polls, amid cries of "kill the d—d nigger thief," "cut his throat," "tear his heart out," etc. After they got him to the outside of the crowd, they stood around him with cocked pistols and drawn bowie-knives, one man putting a knife to his heart, so that it touched him, another holding a cocked pistol to his ear, while another struck at him with a club. The Missourians said they had a right to vote if they had been in the territory but five minutes. Some said they had been hired to come there and vote, and get a dollar a day, and by G—d, they would vote or die there.
They said the 30th of March was an important day, as Kansas would be made a slave state on that day. They began to leave in the direction of Missouri in the afternoon, after they had voted, leaving some thirty or forty around the house where the election was held, to guard the polls until after the election was over. The citizens of the territory were not around, except those who took part in the mob, and a large portion of them did not vote; 341 votes were polled there that clay, of which but some thirty were citizens. A protest against the election was made to the governor. The returns of the election made to the governor were lost by the committee of elections of the legislature at Pawnee. The duplicate returns left in the ballot-box were taken by F. E. Laley, one of the judges elected by the Missourians, and were either lost or destroyed in his house, so that your committee have been unable to institute a comparison between the poll-lists and census returns of this district. The testimony, however, is uniform, that not over thirty of those who voted there that day were entitled to vote, leaving 311 illegal votes. We are satisfied from the testimony that had the actual settlers alone voted, the free-state candidates would have been elected by handsome majorities.
On the 28th of March, persons from Clay, Jackson and Howard counties, Missouri, began to come into Tecumseh district, in wagons, carriages, and on horseback, armed with guns, bowie-knives and revolvers; and with threats, encamped close by the town, and continued coming until the day of election The night before the election 200 men were sent for from the camp of Missourians at Lawrence. On the morning of the election, before the polls were opened, some 300 or 400 Missourians and others were collected in the yard about the house of Thomas Stinson, where the election was to be held, armed with bowie-knives, revolvers and clubs. They said they came to vote, and whip the d—d Yankees, and would vote without being sworn. Some said they came to have a fight and wanted one. Colonel Samuel H. Woodson, of Independence, Missouri, was in the room of the judges when they arrived, preparing poll-books and tally-lists, and remained there during their attempts to organize. The room of the judges was also filled by many of the strangers. The judges could not agree concerning the oath to be taken by themselves, and the oath to be administered to the voters, Mr. Burgess wishing to administer the oath prescribed by the governor and the other two judges opposing it. During this discussion between the judges, which lasted some time, the crowd outside became excited and noisy, threatening and cursing Mr. Burgess, the free-state judge. Persons were sent, at different times, by the crowd outside, into the room where the judges were, with threatening messages, especially against Mr. Burgess, and at last ten minutes were given them to organize in or leave; and as the time passed, persons outside would call out the number of minutes left, with threats against Burgess, if he did not agree to organize. At the end of that time, the judges not being able to organize, left the room and the crowd proceeded to elect nine judges and carry on the election. The free-state men generally left the ground without voting, stating that there was no use in their voting there. The polls were so crowded during the first part of the day that the citizens could not get up to the window to vote. Threats were made against the free-state men. In the afternoon the reverend Mr. Gispatrick was attacked and driven off by the mob. A man, by some called "Texas," made a speech to the crowd, urging them to vote and to stay on the ground till the polls were closed, for fear the abolitionists would come there in the afternoon and overpower them, and thus they would loose all their trouble.
For some days prior to the election, companies of men were organized in Jackson, Cass, and Clay counties, Mo., for the purpose of coming to the territory and voting in the Vth district. The day previous to the election, some 400 or 500 Missourians, armed with guns, pistols, and knives, came into the territory and camped, some at Bull Creek, and others at Potawatamie Creek. Their camps were about sixteen miles apart. On the evening before the election, Judge Hamilton, of the Cass county court, Mo., came from the Potawatamie Creek camp to Bull Creek for sixty more Missourians, as they had not enough there to render the election certain, and about that number went down there with him. On the evening before the election, Dr. B. C. Westfall was elected to act as one of the judges of election in the Bull Creek precinct, in place of one of the judges appointed by the governor, who, it was said, would not be there the next day. Dr. Westfall was at that time a citizen of Jackson county, Mo. On the morning of the election, the polls for Bull Creek precinct were opened, and, without swearing the judges, they proceeded to receive the votes of all who offered to vote. For the sake of appearance, they would get some one to come to the window and offer to vote, and when asked to be sworn, he would pretend to grow angry at the judges, and would go away, and his name would be put down as having offered to vote, but "rejected, refusing to be sworn." This arrangement was made previously, and perfectly understood by the judges. But few of the residents of the district were present at the election, and only thirteen voted. The number of votes cast in the precinct was 393.
One Missourian voted for himself and then voted for his little son, but 10 or 11 years old. Col. Coffer, Henry Younger, and Mr. Lykins, who were voted for and elected to the legislature, were residents of Missouri at the time. Col. Coffer subsequently married in the territory. After the polls were closed, the returns were made, and a man, claiming to be a magistrate, certified on them that he had sworn the judges of election before opening the polls. In the Potawatamie precinct, the Missourians attended the election, and after threatening Mr. Chesnut, the only judge present appointed by the governor, to induce him to resign, they proceeded to elect two other judges—one a Missourian and the other a resident of another precinct of that district. The polls were then opened, and all the Missourians were allowed to vote without being sworn.
After the polls were closed, and the returns made out for the signature of the judges, Mr. Chesnut refused to sign them, as he did not consider them correct returns of legal voters.
Col. Coffer, a resident of Missouri, but elected to the Kansas legislature from that district at that election, endeavored with others to induce Mr. Chesnut by threats to sign the returns, which he refused to do, and left the house. On his way home, he was fired at by some Missourians, though not injured. There were three illegal to one legal vote given there that day. At the Big Layer precinct, the judges appointed by the governor met at the time appointed, and proceeded to open the polls, after being duly sworn. After a few votes had been received, a party of Missourians came into the yard of the house where the election was held, and, unloading a wagon filled with arms, stacked their guns in the yard, and came up to the window and demanded to be admitted to vote. Two of the judges decided to receive their votes, whereupon the third judge, Mr. J. M. Arthur, resigned, and another was chosen in his place. Col. Young, a citizen of Missouri, but a candidate for, and elected to, the territorial legislative council, was present and voted in the precinct. He claimed that all Missourians who were present on the day of election were entitled to vote. But thirty or forty of the citizens of the precinct were present, and many of them did not vote. At the Little Sugar precinct, the election seemed to have been conducted fairly, and there a free state majority was polled. From the testimony, the whole district appears to have been largely free state, and had none but actual settlers voted, the free state candidates would have been elected by a large majority. From a careful examination of the testimony and the records, we find that from 200 to 225 legal votes were polled out of 885, the total number given in the precincts of the Vth district. Of the legal votes cast, the free state candidates received 152.
A company of citizens from Missouri, mostly from Bates county, came into the VIth district the day before the election, some camping and others putting up at the public house. They numbered from 100 to 200, and came in wagons and on horseback, carrying their provisions and teats with them, and were generally armed with pistols. They declared their purpose to vote, and claimed the right to do so. They went to the polls generally in small bodies, with tickets in their hands, and many, if not all, voted. In some cases, they declared that they had voted, and gave their reasons for so doing. Mr. Anderson, a pro-slavery candidate for the legislature, endeavored to dissuade the nonresidents from voting, because he did not wish the election contested. This person, however, insisted upon voting, and upon his right to vote, and did so. No one was challenged or sworn, and all voted who desired to. Out of 350 votes cast, not over 100 were legal, and but 64 of these named in the census taken one month before by Mr. Barber, the candidate for council, voted. Many of the free state men did not vote, but your committee is satisfied that, of the legal votes cast, the pro-slavery candidates received a majority. Mr. Anderson, one of these candidates, was an unmarried man, who came into the district from Missouri a few days before the election, and boarded at the public house until the day after the election. lie then took with him the poll-lists, end did not return to Fort Scott until the occasion of a barbecue the week before the election of October 1, 1855. He voted at that election, and after it, left, and has not since been in the district. S. A. Williams, the other proslavery candidate, at the time of the election had a claim in the territory, but his legal residence was not there until after the election.
From two to three hundred men, from the state of Missouri, came in wagons or on horseback to the election ground at Switzer's Creek, in the VIIth district, and encamped near the polls, on the day preceding the election. They were armed with pistols and other weapons, and declared their purpose to vote, in order to secure the election of pro-slavery members. They said they were disappointed in not finding more Yankees there, and that they had brought more men than were necessary to counterbalance their vote. A number of them wore badges of blue ribbon, with a motto, and the company were under the direction of leaders. They declared their intention to conduct themselves peacefully, unless the residents of the territory attempted to stop them from voting. Two of the judges of election appointed by Gov. Reeder refused to serve, whereupon two others were appointed in their stead by the crowd of Missourians who surrounded the polls. The newly-appointed judges refused to take the oath prescribed by Gov. Reeder, but made one to suit themselves.
The election in the XIIth district was conducted fairly. No complaint was made that illegal votes were cast.
Previous to the day of election, several hundreds of Missourians from Platte, Clay, Boone, Clinton, and Howard counties, came into the XIIIth district in wagons and on horseback, and camped there. They were armed with guns, revolvers, and bowie-knives, and had badges of hemp in their button-holes and elsewhere about their persons. They claimed to have a right to vote, from the fact that they were there on the ground, and had, or intended to make, claims in the territory, although their families were in Missouri. The judges appointed by the governor opened the polls, and some persons offered to vote, and when their votes were rejected on the ground that they were not residents of the district, the crowd threatened to tear the house down if the judges did not leave. The judges then withdrew, taking the poll-bookj with them. The crowd then proceeded to select other persons to act as judges, and the election went on. Those persons voting who were sworn were asked if they considered themselves residents of the district, and if they said they did, they were allowed to vote. But few of the residents were present and voted, and the free state men, as a general thing, did not vote.
Several hundred Missouriaus from Buchanan, Platte, and Andrew counties, Mo., including a great many of the prominent citizens of St. Joseph, came into the XIVth district the day before and on the day of election, in wagons and on horseback, and encamped there. Arrangements were made for them to cross the ferry at St. Joseph free of expense to themselves. They were armed with bowie-knives and pistols, guns and rifles. On the morning of the election, the free state candidates resigned in a body, on account of the presence of the large number of armed Missourians, at which the crowd cheered and hurrahed. Gen. B. F. Stringfellow was present, and was prominent in promoting the election of the pro-slavery ticket, as was also the Hon. Willard P. Hall, and others of the most prominent citizens of St. Joseph, Mo. But one of the judges of election, appointed by the governor, served on that day, and the crowd chose two others to supply the vacancies.
The evening before the election, some two hundred or more Missourians from Platte, Buchanan, Saline, and Clay counties, Mo., came into the Doniphan precinct, with tents, music, wagons, and provisions, and armed with guns, rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives, and encamped about two miles from the place of voting. They said they came to vote, to make Kansas a slave state, and intended to return to Missouri after they had voted.
On the morning of the election, the judges appointed by the governor would not serve, and others were appointed by the crowd. The Missourians were allowed to vote without being sworn—some of them voting as many as eight or nine times; changing their hats and coats, and giving in different names each time. After they had voted, they returned to Missouri. The free state men generally did not vote, though constituting a majority in the precinct. Upon counting the ballots in the box and the names on the poll-lists, it was found that there were too many ballots, and one of the judges of election took out ballots enough to make the two numbers correspond.
The election in the XVth district was held in the house of a Mr. Hayes. On the day of election, a crowd of from 400 to 500 men collected around the polls, of which the great body were citizens of Missouri. One of the judges of election, in his testimony, states that the strangers commenced crowding around the polls, and that then the residents left. Threats were made before and during the election day that there should be no free state candidates, although there were nearly or quite as many free state as pro-slavery men resident in the district. Most of the crowd were drinking and carousing, cursing the abolitionists and threatening the only free state judge of election. A majority of those who voted wore hemp in their button-holes, and their password was, "all right on the hemp." Many of the Missourians were known, and are named by the witnesses. Several speeches were made by them at the polls, and among those who spoke were Major Oliver, one of your committee, Col. Burns, and Lalan Williams, of Platte county. Major Oliver urged upon all present to use no harsh words, and expressed the hope that nothing would be said or done to harm the feelings of the most sensitive on the other Bide. He gave some grounds, based on the Missouri compromise, in regard to the right of voting, and was understood to excuse the Missourians for voting. Your committee are satisfied that he did not vote. Col. Burns recommended all to vote, and he hoped none would go home without voting. Some of the pro-slavery residents were much dissatisfied at the interference with their rights by the Missourians, and for that reason—because reflection convinced them that it would be better to have Kansas a free state—they "fell over the fence." The judge requested the voters to take an oath that they were actual residents. They objected at first, some saying they had a claim, or "I am here." But the free state judge insisted upon the oath, and his associates, who at first were disposed to waive it, coincided with him, and the voters all took it after some grumbling. One said he cut him some poles and laid them in the shape of a square, and that made him a claim; and another said that he had cut him a few sticks of wood, and that made him a claim.
For some time previous to the election, meetings were held and arrangements made in Missouri to get up companies to come over to the territory and vote, and the day before and on the day of election, large bodies of Missourians from Platte, Clay, Ray, Charlton, Carrol, Clinton, and Saline counties, Missouri, came into the XVIth district and camped there. They were armed with pistols and bowie-knives, and sum with guns and rifles, and had badges of hemp in their button-holes and elsewhere about their persons.
On the morning of the election there were from 1,000 to 1,400 persons present on the ground. Previous to the election, the Missourians endeavored to persuade the free state judges to resign by making threats of personal violence to them, one of whom resigned on the morning of election, and the crowd chose another to fill his place. But one of the judges, the free state judge, would take the oath prescribed by the governor, the other two deciding that they had no right to swear any one who offered to vote, but that all on the ground were entitled to vote. The only votes refused were some Delaware Indians, some 30 Wyandot Indians being allowed to vote.
One of the free state candidates withdrew in consequence of the presence of the Missourians, amid cheering and acclamations by the Missourians. During the day, the steamboat New Lucy came down from Western Missouri, with a large number of Missourians on board, who voted and then returned on the boat.
The Missourians gave as a reason for their coming over to vote, that the north had tried to force emigration into the territory, and they wanted to counteract that movement. Some of the candidates and many of the Missourians took the ground that, under the Kansas-Nebraska act, all who were on the ground on the day of election were entitled to vote, and others, that laying out a town, staking a lot, or driving down stakes, even on another man's claim, gave them a right to vote. And one of the members of the council, R. R. Rees, declared in his testimony that he who should put a different construction upon the law must be either a knave or a fool.
The free state men generally did not vote at that election; and no newly arrived eastern emigrants were there. The free state judge of election refused to sign the returns until the words "by lawful resident voters" were stricken out, which was done, and the returns made in that way. The election was contested, and a new election ordered by Governor Reeder for the 22d of May.
The testimony is divided as to the relative strength of parties in this district. The whole number of voters in the district, according to the census returns, was 385; and according to a very carefully prepared list of voters, prepared for the pro-slavery candidates and other pro-slavery men, a few days previous to the election, there were 305 voters in the district, including those who had claims but did not live on them. The whole number of votes cast was 964. Of those named in the census, 106 voted. Your committee, upon careful examination, are satisfied that there were not over 150 legal votes cast, leaving 814 illegal votes.
The election in the XVIIth district seems to have been fairly conducted, and not contested at all. In this district the pro-slavery party had the majority.
Previous to the election, Gen. David R. Atchison, of Platte City, Mo., got up a company of Missourians, and passing through Weston, Mo., went over into the territory. lie remained all night, and then exhibited his arms, of which he had an abundance. he proceeded to the Nemohaer (XVIIIth) district. On his way, he and his party attended a nominating convention in the XIVth district, and proposed and caused to be nominated a set of candidates in opposition to the wishes of the pro-slavery residents of the district. At that convention he said that there were 1,100 men coming over from Platte county, and if that wasn't enough they could send 5,000 more—that they came to vote, and would vote or kill every G—d d—d abolitionist in the territory.
On the day of election, the Missourians under Atchison, who were encamped there, came up to the polls in the XVIIIth district, taking the oath that they were residents of the district. The Missourians were all armed with pistols or bowie-knives, and said there were 60 in their company. But 11 votes given on that day were given by residents of the district. The whole number of votes was 62.
Your committee report the following facts not shown by the tables: Of the twenty-nine hundred and five voters named in the census-rolls, eight hundred and thirty-one are found on the poll-books. Some of the settlers were prevented from attending the election by the distance of their homes from the polls; but the great majority were deterred by the open avowal that large bodies of armed Missourians would be at the polls to vote, and by the fact that they did so appear and control the election. The same (noses deterred the free state settlers from running candidates in several districts, and in others induced the candidates to withdraw.
The poll-books of the lid and VIIIth districts were lost; but the proof is quite clear that, in the lid district, there were thirty, and in the VIIIth district thirty-eight legal votes, making a total of eight hundred and ninety-eight legal voters of the territory, whose names are on the census returns; and yet the proof, in the state in which we are obliged to present it, after excluding illegal votes, leaves the total vote of 1,310, showing a discrepancy of 412. The discrepancy is accounted for in two ways: first, the coming in of settlers before the March election, and after the census was taken, or settlers who were omitted in the census; or secondly, the disturbed state of the territory while we were investigating the elections in some of the districts, thereby preventing us from getting testimony in relation to the names of legal voters at the time of election.
If the election had been confined to the actual settlers, undeterred by the presence of non-residents, or the knowledge that they would lie present in numbers sufficient to out-vote them, the testimony indicates that the council would have been composed of seven in favor of making Kansas a free state, elected from the Ist, IId, IIId, IVth, and VIth council districts. The result in the VIIIth and Xth, electing three members, would have been doubtful, and the Vth, VIIth, and IXth would have elected three pro-slavery members.
Under like circumstances, the house of representatives would have been composed of fourteen members in favor of makiug Kansas a free state, elected from the IId IIId, IVth, Vth, VIIth, VIIIth, IXth, and Xth representative districts.
The result in the XIIth and XIVth representative districts, electing five members, would have been doubtful, and the Ist, VIth, XIth, and XVth districts would have elected seven pro-slavery members.
By the election, as conducted, the pro-slavery candidates in every district but the VIIIth representative district, received a majority of the votes; and several of them, in both the council and the house, did not "reside in," and were not "inhabitants of" the district for which they were elected, as required by the organic law. By that act it was declared to be the true intent and meaning of this act to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject to the constitution of the United States.
So careful was congress of the right of popular sovereignty, that to secure it to the people, without a single petition from any portion of the country, they removed the restriction against slavery imposed by the Missouri compromise. And yet this right, so carefully secured, was thus by force and fraud overthrown by a portion of the people of an adjoining state.
The striking difference between this republic and other republics on this continent, is not in the provisions of constitutions and laws, but that here changes in the administration of those laws have been made peacefully and quietly through the ballot-box. This invasion is the first and only one in the history of our government, by which an organized force from one state has elected a legislature for another state or territory, and as such it should have been resisted by the whole executive power of the national government.
Your committee are of the opinion that the constitution and laws of the United States have invested the president and governor of the territory with ample power for this purpose. They could only act after receiving authentic information of the facts, but when received, whether before or after the certificates of election were granted, this power should have been exercised to its fullest extent. It is not to be tolerated that a legislative body thus selected should assume or exercise any legislative functions; and their enactments should be regarded as null and void; nor should the question of its legal existence as a legislative body be determined by itself, as that would be allowing the criminal to judge of his own crime. In section twenty-two of the organic act, it is provided that "the persons having the highest number of legal votes in each of said council districts for members of the council, shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected to the council, and the persons having the highest number of legal votes for the house of representatives, shall be declared by the governor duly elected members of said house." The proclamation of the governor required a verified notice of a contest, when one was made, to be filed with him within four days after the election. Within that time he did not obtain information as to force or fraud in any except the following districts, and in these there were material defects in the returns of election. Without deciding upon his power to set aside elections for force and fraud, they were set aside for the following reasons:
In the 1st district, because the words "by lawful resident voters," were stricken from the returns.
In the lid district, because the oath was administered by G. W. Taylor, who was not authorized to administer an oath.
In the Hid district, because material erasures from the printed form of the oath were purposely made.
In the IVth district, for the same reason.
In the VIIth district, because the judges were not sworn at all.
In the XIth district, because the returns show the election to have been held viva voce instead of by ballot.
In the XVIth district, because the words "by lawful residence" were stricken from the returns.
Although the fraud and force in other districts were equally great as in these, yet as the governor had no information in regard to them, he issued certificates according to the returns.
Your committee here felt it to be their duty not only to inquire into and collect evidence in regard to force and fraud attempted and practiced at the elections in the territory, but also into the facts:id pretexts by which this force and fraud has been excused and justified; and for this purpose, your commit* tee have allowed the declarations of non-resident voters to be given as evidence in their own behalf; also the declarations of all those who came to the Missouri river as emigrants, in March, 1855, whether they voted or not, and whether they came into the territory at all or not; and also the rumors which were circulated among the people of Missouri previous to the election. The great body of the testimony taken at the instance of the sitting delegate is of this character.
When the declarations of parties passing up the river were offered in evidence, your committee received them upon the distinct statement that they would be excluded unless the persons making the declarations were by other proof shown to have been connected with the elections. This proof was not made, and therefore much of this class of testimony is incompetent by the rules of law, but is allowed to remain as tending to show the cause of the action of the citizens of Missouri.
The alleged causes of the invasion of March, 1855, are included in the following charges:
I. That the New England Aid Society of Boston was then importing into the territory large numbers of men merely for the purpose of controlling the elections. That they came without women, children, or baggage, went into the territory, voted, and returned again.
II. That men were hired in the eastern or northern states, or induced to go into the territory solely to vote, and not to settle, and by so doing to make it a free state.
III. That the governor of the territory purposely postponed the day of election to allow this emigration to arrive, and notified the emigrant aid society, and persons in the eastern states, of the day of election, before he gave notice to the people of Missouri and the territory.
That these charges were industriously circulated; that grossly exaggerated statements were made in regard to them; that the newspaper press and leading men in public meetings in western Missouri, aided in one case by a chaplain of the United States army, gave currency and credit to them, and thus excited the people, and induced many well-meaning citizens of Missouri to march into the territory to meet and repel the alleged eastern paupers and abolitionists, is fully proven by many witnesses.
But these charges are not sustained by the proof.
In April, 1854, the general assembly of Massachusetts passed an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society" The object of the society, as declared in the first section of this act, was "for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west." The moneyed capital of the corporation was not to exceed five millions of dollars; but no more than four per cent, could be assessed during the year 1854, and no more than ten per cent, in any one year thereafter. No organization was perfected, or proceedings had, under this law
On the 24th of July, 1854, certain persons in Boston, Massachusetts, eluded articles of agreement and association for an emigrant aid society. The purpose of this association was declared to be "assisting emigrants to settle in the west." Under these articles of association, each stockholder was individually liable. To avoid this difficulty, an application was made to the general assembly of Massachusetts for an act of incorporation, which was granted. On the 21st day of February, 1855, an act was passed to incorporate the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The purposes of this act were declared to be "directing emigration westward, and aiding and providing accommodation for the emigrants after arriving at their place of destination." The capital stock of the corporation was not to exceed one million of dollars. Under this charter a company was organized.
Your committee have examined some of its officers and a portion of its circulars and records to ascertain what has been done by it. The public attention, at that time, was directed to the territory of Kansas, and emigration naturally tended in that direction. To ascertain its character and resources, this company sent its agent into it, and the information thus obtained was published. The company made arrangements with various lines of transportation to reduce the expense of emigration into the territory, and procured tickets at the reduced rates. Applications were made to the company by persons desiring to emigrate, and when they were numerous enough to form a party of convenient size, tickets were sold to them at the reduced rates. An agent acquainted with the route was selected to accompany them. Their baggage was checked, and all trouble and danger of loss to the emigrant in this way avoided.
Under these arrangements, companies went into the territory in the fall of 1854, under the articles of association referred to. The company did not pay any portion of the fare, or furnish any real or personal property to the emigrant. The company during 1855 sent into the territory from eight to ten saw-mills, purchased one hotel in Kansas City, which they subsequently sold, built one hotel at Lawrence, and owned one other building in that place. In some cases, to induce them to make improvements, town lots were given to them by town associations in this territory. They held no property of any other kind or description. They imposed no condition upon their emigrants, and did not inquire into their political, religious, or social opinions. The total amount expended by them, including the salaries of their agents and officers, and the expenses incident to all organizations, was less than $100,000.
Their purposes, as far as your committee can ascertain, were lawful, and contributed to supply those wants most experienced in the settlement of a new country.
The only persons or company who emigrated into the territory under the auspices of the emigrant aid society in 1855, prior to the election in March, was a party of 159 persons, who came under the charge of Charles Robinson.
In this party there were 67 women and children. They came as actual settlers, intending to make their homes in the territory, and for no other purpose. They had about their persons but little baggage; usually sufficient clothing in a carpet-sack for a short time. Their personal effects, such as clothing, funiture, etc., was put into trunks and boxes; and for convenience in selecting and cheapness in transporting, was marked "Kansas party baggage, care B. Slater, St. Louis." Generally this was consigned as freight, in the usual way, to the care of a commission merchant. This party had, in addition to the usual allowance of one hundred pounds to each passenger, a large quantity of baggage, on which the respective owners paid the usual extra freight. Each passenger or party paid his or their own expenses; and the only benefit they derived from the society, not shared by all the people of the territory, was the reduction of about $7 in the price of the fare, the convenience of traveling in a company instead of alone, and the cheapness and facility of transporting their freight through regular agents. Subsequently, many emigrants, being either disappointed with the country or its political condition, or deceived by the statements made by the newspapers and by the agents of the society, became dissatisfied, and returned, both before and after the election, to their old homes. Most of them are now settlers in the territory. Some few voted at the election in Lawrence, but the number was small. The names of these emigrants have been ascertained, and of them were found upon the poll-books. This company of peaceful emigrants, moving with their household goods, was distorted into an invading horde of pauper abolitionists, who were, with others of a similar character, to control the domestic institutions of the territory, and then overturn those of a neighboring powerful state.
In regard to the second charge: There is no proof that any man was either hired or induced to come into the territory from any free state, merely to vote. The entire emigration in March, 1855, is estimated at 500 persons, including men, women, and children. They came on steamboats up the Missouri river, in the ordinary course of emigration. Many returned for causes similar to those before stated; but the body of them are now residents. The only persons of those who were connected by proof with the election, were some who voted at the Big Blue precinct in the Xth district, and at Pawnee in the IXth district. Their purpose and character are stated in a former part of this report.
The third charge is entirely groundless.
Your committee are satisfied that these charges were made the mere pretext to induce an armed invasion into the territory, as a means to control the election and establish slavery there.
The real purpose is avowed and illustrated by the testimony and conduct of Col. John Scott, of St. Joseph, Missouri, who acted as the attorney for the sitting delegate before your committee. The following is an extract from his deposition:
The invasion of March 30th left both parties in a state of excitement, tending directly to produce violence. The successful party was lawless and reckless, while assuming the name of the "law and order" party. The other party, at first surprised and confounded, was greatly irritated, and some resolved to prevent the success of the invasion. In some districts protests were sent to the governor; in others this was prevented by threats; in others, by the want of time, only four days being allowed by the proclamation for this purpose; and in others, by the belief that a new election would bring a new invasion. About the same time all classes of men commenced bearing deadly weapons about their person, a practice which has continued to this time. Under these circumstances, a slight or accidental quarrel produced unusual violence, and lawless acts became frequent. This evil condition of the public mind was further increased by acts of violence in Western Missouri, where, in April, a newspaper press called "The Parkville Luminary" was destroyed by a mob.
About the same time, Malcolm Clark assaulted Cole McCrea, at a squatter meeting in Leavenworth, and was shot by McCrea, in alleged self-defense.
On the 17th day of May, William Phillips, a lawyer of Leavenworth, was first notified to leave, and upon his refusal, was forcibly seized, taken across the river, and carried several miles into Missouri, and then tarred and feathered, and one side of his head shaved, and other gross indignities put upon his person.
Previous to the outrage, a public meeting was held, at which resolutions were unanimously passed, looking to unlawful violence, and grossly intolerant in their character. The right of free speech upon the subject of slavery was characterized as a disturbance of the peace and quiet of the community, and as "circulating incendiary sentiments." They say "to the peculiar friends of northern fanatics," "go home and do your treason where you may find sympathy." Among other resolves is the following:
A committee of vigilance of thirty men was appointed, "to observe and report all such persons as shall, * * * * by the expression of abolition sentiments, produce disturbance to the quiet of the citizens, or danger to their domestic relations; and all such persons so offending, shall be notified, and made to leave the territory."
The meeting was "ably and eloquently addressed by Judge Lecompte, Col J. N. Bums, of Western Missouri, and others." Thus the head of the judiciary in the territory, not only assisted at a public and bitterly partisan meeting, whose direct tendency was to produce violence and disorder, bat before any law is passed in the territory, he prejudges the character of domestic institutions, which the people of the territory were, by their organic law, "left perfectly free to form and regulate in their own way."
On this committee were several of those who held certificates of election as members of the legislature; some of the others were then and still are residents of Missouri; and many of the committee have since been appointed to the leading offices in the territory, one of which is the sheriffalty of the county. Their first act was that of mobbing Phillips.
Subsequently, on the 25th of May, A. D. 1855, a public meeting was held, at which R. R. Rees, a member elect of the council, presided. The following resolutions, offered by Judge Payne, a member elect of the house, were unanimously adopted:
"Resolved, That we heartily indorse the action of the committee of citizens that shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a rail, and had sold by a negro, Wm. Phillips, the moral perjurer.
"Resolved, That we return our thanks to the committee for faithfully performing the trust enjoined upon them by the pro-slavery party.
"Resolved, That the committee be now discharged.
"Resolved, That we severely condemn those pro-slavery men who, from mercenary motives, are calling upon the pro-slavery party to submit without further action.
"Resolved, That in order to secure peace and harmony to the community, we now solemnly declare that the pro-slavery party will stand firmly by and carry out the resolutions reported by the committee appointed for that purpose on the memorable 30th."
The act of moral perjury here referred to, is the swearing by Phillips to a truthful protest in regard to the election of March 30, in the XVIth district.
The members receiving their certificates of the governor as members of the general assembly of the territory, met at Pawnee, the place appointed by the governor, on the 2d of July, A. D. 1855. Their proceedings are stated in three printed books, herewith submitted, entitled respectively, "The Statutes of the Territory of Kansas;" "The Journal of the Council of the Territory of Kansas;" and "The Journal of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Kansas."
Your committee do not regard their enactments as valid laws. A legislature thus imposed upon a people, cannot affect their political rights. Such an attempt to do so, if successful, is virtually an overthrow of the organic law, and reduces the people of the territory to the condition of vassals to a neighboring state. The great body of the general laws are exact transcripts from the Missouri code. To make them in some cases conform to the organic act, separate acts were passed, defining the meaning of words. Thus the word "state" is to be understood as meaning "territory;" the word "county court" shall be considered to mean the board of commissioners transacting county business, or the probate court, according to the intent thereof. The words "circuit court" to mean "district court." The material differences in the Missouri and Kansas statutes are upon the following subjects: The qualifications of voters and of members of the legislative assembly; the official oath of all officers, attorneys, and voters; the mode of selecting officers, and their qualifications; the slave code, and the qualifications of jurors.
Upon these subjects the provisions of the Missouri code are such as are usual in many of the states. But by the "Kansas statutes," every office in the territory, executive and judicial, was to be appointed by the legislature, or by some officer appointed by it. These appointments were not merely to meet a temporary exigency, but were to hold over two regular elections, and until after the general election in October, 1857, at which the members of the new council were to be elected. The new legislature is required to meet on the first Monday in January, 1858. Thus, by the terms of these "laws," the people have no control whatever over either the legislative, the executive, or the judicial departments of the territorial government until a time before which, by the natural progress of population, the territorial government will be superseded by a state government.
No session of the legislature is to be held during 1856, but the members of the house are to be elected in October of that year. A candidate, to be eligible at this election, must swear to support the fugitive slave law, and each judge of election, and each voter, if challenged, must take the same oath. The same oath is required of every officer elected or appointed in the territory, and of every attorney admitted to practice in the courts.
A portion of the militia is required to muster on the day of election. "Every free white male citizen of the United States, and every free male Indian, who is made a citizen by treaty or otherwise, and over the age of twenty-one years, and who shall be an inhabitant of the territory, and of the county and district in which he offers to vote, and shall have paid a territorial tax, shall be a qualified elector for all elective offices." Two classes of persons were thus excluded, who by the organic act were allowed to vote, viz: those who would not swear to the oath required, and those of foreign birth who had declared on oath their intention to become citizens. Any man of proper age who was in the territory on the day of election, and who had paid one dollar as a tax to the sheriff, who was required to be at the polls to receive it, could vote as an "inhabitant," although he had breakfasted in Missouri, and intended to return there for supper. There can be no doubt that this unusual and unconstitutional provision was inserted to prevent a full and fair expression of the popular will in the election of members of the house, or to control it by non-residents.
All jurors are required to be selected by the sheriff, and "no person who is conscientiously opposed to the holding of slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in the territory, shall be a juror in any cause" affecting the right to hold slaves, or relating to slave property.
The slave code, and every provision relating to slaves, are of a character intolerent and unusual, even for that class of legislation. The character and conduct of the men appointed to hold office in the territory contributed very
much to produce the events which followed. Thus, Samuel J. Jones was appointed sheriff of the county of Douglas, which included within it tie-1st and lid election districts. He had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the settlers by his conduct on the 30th of March, in the lid district, and by his burning the cabins of Joseph Oakley and Samuel Smith.
While these enactments of tin 1 alleged legislative assembly were being made, a movement was instituted to form a state government, and apply for admission into the Union as a state. The first general meeting was held in Lawrence on the 15th of August, 1855. The following preamble and resolutions were then passed:
Other meetings were held in various parts of the territory, which indorsed the action of the Lawrence meeting, and delegates wre selected in compliance with its recommendations.
They met at Topeka on the 19th day of September, 1855. By their resolutions they provided for the appointment of an executive committee to consist of seven persons, who were required to "keep a record of their proceedings, and shall have a general superintendence of the affairs of the territory, so far as regards the organization of the state government." They were required to take steps for an election to be held on the second Tuesday of the October following, under regulations imposed by that committee, "for members of a convention to form a constitution, adopt a bill of rights for the people of Kansas, and take all needful measures for organizing a state government, preparatory to the admission of Kansas into the Union as a state." The rides prescribed were such as usually govern elections in most of the states of the Union, and in most respects were similar to those contained in the proclamation of Gov. Reeder for the election of March 30, 1855.
The executive committee, appointed by that convention, accepted their appointment, and entered upon the discharge of their duties by issuing a proclamation addressed to the legal voters of Kansas, requesting them to meet at their several precincts, at the time and places named in the proclamation, then and there to cast their ballots for members of a constitutional convention, to meet at Topeka on the 4th Tuesday of October then next.
The proclamation designated the places of elections, appointed judges, recited the qualifications of voters and the apportionment of members of the convention.
After this proclamation was issued, public meetings were held in every district in the territory, and in nearly every precinct. The state movement was a general topic of discussion throughout the territory, and there was but little opposition exhibited to it. Elections were held at the time and places designated, and the returns were sent to the executive committee.
The result of the election was proclaimed by the executive committee, and the members elect were required to meet on the 23d day of October, 1855, at Topeka. In pursuance of this proclamation and direction, the constitutional convention met at the time aud place appointed, and formed a state constitution. A memorial to congress was also prepared, praying for the admission of Kansas into the Union under the constitution. The convention also provided that the question of the adoption of the constitution and other questions be submitted to the people, and required the executive committee to take the necessary steps for that purpose.
Accordingly, an election was held for that purpose on the 15th day of December, 1855, in compliance with the proclamation issued by the executive committee. The returns of this election were made to the executive committee, exhibiting the following result: For the adoption of the constitution, 1731; against it, 46.
The executive committee then issued a proclamation reciting the results of the election of the 15th of December, and at the same time provided for an election to be held on the 15th day of January, 1856, for state officers and members of the general assembly of the state of Kansas. The result of this election was announced by a proclamation by the executive committee.
In accordance with the constitution thus adopted, the members of the state legislature and most of the state officers met on the day and at the place designated by the state constitution, and took the oath therein prescribed.
After electing United States senators, passing some preliminary laws, and appointing a codifying committee and preparing a memorial to congress, the general assembly adjourned to meet on the 4th day of July, 1856.
The laws passed were all conditional upon the admission of Kansas as a state into the Union. These proceedings were regular, and, in the opinion of your committee, the constitution thus adopted fairly expresses the will of the majority of the settlers. They now await the action of congress upon their memorial.
These elections, whether they were conducted in pursuance of law or not, were not illegal.
Whether the result of them is sanctioned by the action of congress, or they are regarded as the mere expression of a popular will, and congress should re fuse to grant the prayer of the memorial, that cannot affect their legality. The right of the people to assemble and express their political opinion in any form, whether by means of an election or a convention, is secured to them by the constitution of the United States. Even if the elections arc to he regarded as the act of a party, whether political or otherwise, they were proper, in accordance with examples, both in states and territories.
The elections, however, were preceded and followed by acts of violence on the part of those who opposed them, and those persons who approved and sustained the invasion from Missouri were peculiarly hostile to these peaceful movements preliminary to the organization of a state government. Instances of tins violence will he referred to hereafter.
In the fall of 1855, there sprang out of the existing discords and excitement in the territory two secret free state societies. They were defensive in their character, and were designed to form a protection to their members against unlawful acts of violence and assault. One of the societies was purely of a local character, and was confined to the town of Lawrence. Very shortly after its organization, it produced its desired effect, and then went out of use and ceased to exist. Both societies were cumbersome, and of no utility except to give confidence to the free state men, and enable them to know and aid each other in contemplated danger. So far as the evidence shows, they led to no act of violence in resistance to either real or alleged laws.
On the 21st day of November, 1855, F. M. Coleman, a pro-slavery man, and Charles W. Dow, a free-state man, had a dispute about the division line between their respective claims. Several hours afterward, as Dow was passing from a blacksmith's shop towards his claim, and by the cabin of Coleman, the latter shot Dow with a double-barreled gun loaded with slugs. Dow was unarmed. He fell across the road and died immediately. This was about 1 o'clock p. M. His dead body was allowed to lie where it fell until after sundown, when it was conveyed by Jacob Branson to his house, at which Dow boarded. The testimony in regard to this homicide is voluminous, and shows clearly that it was a deliberate murder by Coleman, and that Harrison Buckely and a Mr. Hargous were accessories to it. The excitement caused by it was very great among all classes of the settlers. On the 26th, a large meeting of citizens was held at the place where the murder was committed, and resolutions passed that Coleman should be brought to justice. In the meantime Coleman had gone to Missouri, and then to governor Shannon, at Shawnee Mission, in Johnson county. He was there taken into custody by S. J. Jones, then acting as sheriff. No warrant was issued or examination had. On the day of the meeting at Hickory Point, Harrison Bradley procured a peace warrant against Jacob Branson, which was placed in the hands of Jones. That same evening, after Branson had gone to bed, Jones came to his cabin with a party of about 25 persons, among whom were Hargous and Buckley—burst open the door and saw Branson in bed. He then drew his pistol, cocked it, and presented it to Branson's breast, and said, "You are my prisoner, and if you move I will blow you through." The others cocked their guns and gathered round him, and took him prisoner. They all mounted and went to Buckley's house. After a time they went on a circuitous route towards Blanton's bridge, stopping to "drink" on the way. As they approached the bridge, there were 13 in the party, several having stopped. Jones rode up to the prisoner, and among other things, told him he had "heard there were 100 men at your house today," and "that he regretted they were not there, and that they were cheated out of their sport." In the meantime the alarm had been given in the neighborhood of Branson's arrest, and several of the settlers, among whom were some who had attended the meeting at Hickory Point that day, gathered together. They were greatly excited; the alleged injustice of such an arrest of a quiet settler, under a peace warrant by "sheriff Jones," aided by two men believed to be accessory to a murder, and who were allowed to be at large, exasperated them, and they proceeded as rapidly as possible by a nearer route than that taken by Jones, and stopped near the house of J. S. Abbott, one of them. They were on foot as Jone's party approached on a canter. The rescuers suddenly formed across the road in front of Jones and his party. Jones halted, and asked, "what's up?" The reply was, "that's what we want to know. What's up?" Branson said, "they have got me a prisoner." Some one in the rescuing party told him to come over to their side. He did so, and dismounted, and the mule he rode was driven over to Jone's party; Jones then left. Of the persons engaged in this rescue, three were from Lawrence, and had attended the meeting. Your committee have deemed it proper to detail the particulars of this rescue, as it was made the groundwork of what is known as the Wakerusa war. On the same night of the rescue the cabins of Coleman and Buckley were burned, but by whom, is left in doubt by the testimony.
On the morning of the rescue of Branson, Jones was at the village of Franklin, near Lawrence. The rescue was spoken of in the presence of Jones, and more conversation passed between two others in his presence, as to whether it was most proper to send for assistance to colonel Boon in Missouri, or to governor Shannon. Jones wrote a dispatch and handed it to a messenger. As soon as he started, Jones said: "That man is taking my dispatch to Missouri, and by G—d I'll have revenge before I see Missouri." A person present, who was examined as a witness, complained publicly that the dispatch was not sent to the governor; and within half an hour one was sent to the governor by Jones, through Hargous. Within a few days, large numbers of men from the state of Missouri gathered and encamped on the Wakarusa. They brought with them all the equipments of war. To obtain them, a party of men under the direction of Judge T. Y. Thompson broke into the United States arsenal and armory at Liberty, Missouri, and after a forcible detention of captain Leonard (then in charge,) they took the cannon, muskets, rifles, powder, harness, and in deed all the materials and munitions of war they desired, some of which have never been returned or accounted for.
The chief hostility of this military foray was against the town of Lawrence, and this was especially the case with the officers of the law.
Your committee can see in the testimony no reason, excuse or palliation for this feeling. Up to this time no warrant or proclamation of any kind had been in the hands of any officer against any citizen of Lawrence. No arrest had been attempted, and no writ resisted in that town. The rescue of Branson sprang out of a murder committed thirteen miles from Lawrence, In a detached settlement, and neither the town nor its citizens extended any protection to Branson's rescuers. On the contrary, two or three days after the rescue, S. N. Wood, who claimed publicly to be one of the rescuing party, wished to be arrested for the purpose of testing the territorial laws, and walked up to sheriff Jones and shook hands with him, and exchanged other courtesies. He could have been arrested without any difficulty, and it was his design, when he went to Mr. Jones, to be arrested, but no attempt was made to do so. It is obvious that the only cause of this hostility is the known desire of "he citizens of Lawrence to make Kansas a free state, and their repugnance to laws imposed upon them by non-residents.
Your committee do not propose to detail the incidents connected with this foray. Fortunately for the peace of the country, a direct conflict between the opposing forces was avoided by an amicable arrangement. The losses sustained by the settlers in property taken and time and money expended in their own defense, added much to the trials incident to a new settlement. Many persons were unlawfully taken and detained—in some cases, under circumstances of gross cruelty. This was especially so in the arrest and treatment of doctor G. A. Cutter and G. F. Warren. They were taken without cause or warrant, 60 miles from Lawrence, and when doctor Cutter was quite sick. They were compelled to go to the camp at Lawrence, were put into the custody of "Sheriff Jones." who had no process to arrest them—they were taken into a small room kept as a liquor shop, which was open and very cold. That night Jones came in with others, and went to "playing poker at twenty-five cents ante." The prisoners were obliged to sit up all night, as there was no room to lie down when the men were playing. Jones insulted them frequently, and told one of them he must either "tell or swing." The guard then objected to this treatment of the prisoners, and Jones desisted. G. F. Warren thus describes their subsequent conduct:
"They then carried us down to their camp; Kelly, of The Squatter Sovereign, who lives in Atchison, came round and said he thirsted for blood, and said he should like to hang us on the first tree. Cutter was very weak, and that excited him so that he became delirious. They sent for three doctors, who came. Doctor Stringfellow was one of them. They remained there with Cutter until after midnight, and then took him up to the office, as it was very cold in camp."
During the foray, either George W. Clark or Mr. Bums murdered Thomas Barber, while the latter was on the highway on his road from Lawrence to his claim. Both fired at him, and it is impossible from the proof to tell whose shot was fatal. The details of this homicide are stated by an eye witness.
Among the many acts of lawless violence which it has been the duty of your committee to investigate, this invasion of Lawrence is the most defenseless. A comparison of the facts proven, with the official statement of the officers of the government, will show how groundless were the pretexts which gave rise to it. A community in which no crime had been committed by any of its members, against none of whom had a warrant been issued or a complaint made, who had resisted no process in the hands of a real or pretended officer, was threatened with destruction in the name of "law and order," and that, too, by men who marched from a neighboring state with arms obtained by force, and who, in every stage of their progress, violated many laws, and among others the constitution of the United States.
The chief guilt of it must rest on Samuel J. Jones. His character is illustrated by his language at Lecompton, where peace was made: "He said major Clark and Burns both claimed the honor of killing that d—d abolitionist, and he did'nt know which ought to have it. If Shannon had'nt been a d — d old fool, that peace would never have been declared. He would have wiped Lawrence out. He had men and means enough to do it."
Shortly after the retreat of the forces from before Lawrence, the election upon the adoption of the state constitution was held at Leavenworth city, on the 15th of December, 1855. While it was proceeding quietly, about noon, Charles Dunn, with a party of others, smashed in the window of the building in which the election was being held, and then jumped into the room where the judges of election were sitting, and drove them off. One of the clerks of election snatched up the ballot-box and followed the judges, throwing the box behind the counter of an adjoining room through which he passed on his way out. As he got to the street door, Dunn caught him by the throat, aud pushed him up against the side of the building, and demanded the ballot-box.
Then Dunn and another person struck him in the face, and he fell into the mtid, the crowd rushed on him and kicked him on the head and in his sides. In this manner the election was broken up, Dunn and his party obtaining the ballot-box and carrying it off.
To avoid a similar outrage at the election for state officers, etc., to be held on the 15th of January, 1856, the election for Leavenworth district was appointed to be held at Easton, and the time postponed until the 17th day of January, 1856. On the way to the election, persons were stopped by a party of men at a grocery, and their guns taken from them. During the afternoon, parties came up to the place of election and threatened to destroy the ballot-box, and were guilty of other insolent and abusive conduct. After the polls were closed many of the settlers being apprehensvie of an attack, were armed in the house where the election had been held until the next morning. Late that night Stephen Sparks, with his son and nephew, started for home, his route running by the store of a Mr. Dawson, where a large party of armed men had collected. As he approached, these men demanded that he should surrender, and gathered about him to enforce the demand. Information was carried by a man in the company of Mr. Sparks to the house where the election had been held. R. P. Brown and a company of men immediately went down to relieve Mr. Sparks, and did relieve him when he was in imminent danger. Mr. Sparks then started back with Mr. Brown and his party, and while on their way were fired on by the other party. They returned the fire, and an irregular fight then ensued, in which a man by the name of Cook, of the pro-slavery party, received a mortal wound, and two of the free state party wore slightly wounded.
Mr. Brown, with seven others who had accompanied him from from Leavenworth, started on their return home. When they had proceeded part of the way, they were stopped and taken prisoners by a party of men called the Kickapoo Rangers, under the command of captain John W. Martin. They were disarmed and taken back to Easton, and put in Dawson's store. Brown was separated from the rest of his party, and taken into the office of E. S. Trotter. By this time several of Martin's party and some of the citizens of the place had become intoxicated, and expressed a determination to kill Brown. Captain Martin was desirous, and did all in his power to save him. Several hours were spent in discussing what should be done with Brown and his party. In the meantime, without the knowledge of his party, captain Martin liberated all of Brown's party but himself, and aided them in their escape. The crowd repeatedly tried to get into the room where Brown was, and at one time succeeded, but were put out by Martin and others. Martin, finding that further effort on his part to save Brown was useless, left and went home. The crowd then got possession of Brown and finally butchered him in cold blood. The wound of which he died was inflicted with a hatchet by a man by the name of Gibson. After he had been mortally wounded, Brown was sent home with Charles Dunn, and died that night. No attempt was made to arrest and punish the murderers of Brown. Many of them were well-known citizens, and some of them were officers of the law. On the next grand jury that set in Leavenworth county, the sheriff summoned several of the persons implicated in this murder. One of them was M. P. Rively, at that time treasurer of the county. He has been examined as a witness before us. The reason he gives why no indictments were found is, "they killed one of the pro-slavery men, and the pro-slavery men killed one of the others, and I thought it was about mutual." The same grand jury, however, found bills of indictment against those who acted as judges of the free-state election. Rively says, "I know our utmost endeavors were made to fiqd out who acted as judges and clerks on the 17th of January last, and at all the bogus elections held by the abolitionists here. We were very anxious to find them out, as we thought them acting illegally."
Your committee, in their examination, have found that in no case of crime or homicide, mentioned in the report or in the testimony, has any indictment been found against the guilty party, except in the homicide of Clark by McCrea, McCrea being a free state man.
Your committee did not deem it within their power or duty to take testimony as to events which have transpired since the date of their appointment; but as some of the events tended seriously to embarrass, hinder, and delay their investigations, they deem it proper here to refer to them. On their arrival in the territory, the people were arrayed in two hostile parties. The hostility of them was continually increased during our stay in the territory, by the arrival of armed bodies of men, who, from their equipments, came not to follow the peaceful pursuits of life, but armed and organized into companies, apparently for war—by the unlawful detention of persons and property while passing through the state of Missouri, and by frequent forcible seizures of persons and property in the territory without legal warrant. Your committee regret that they were compelled to witness instances of each of these classes of outrages While holding their session at Westport, Mo., at the request of the sitting delegate, they saw several bodies of armed men, confessedly citizens of Missouri, march into the territory on forays against its citizens, but under the pretense of enforcing the enactments before referred to. The wagons of emigrants were stopped in the highways, and searched without claim or legal powers, and in some instances all their property taken from them. In Leavenworth City, leading citizens were arrested at noonday in our presence, by an armed force, without any claim of authority, except that derived from a self-constituted committee of vigilance, many of whom were executive and legislative officers. Some were released on promising to leave the territory, and others, after being detained for a time, were formally notified to leave, under the severest penalties. The only offense charged against them was their political opinions, and no one was thus arrested for alleged crime of any grade. There was no resistance to these lawless acts by the settlers, because, in their opinion, the persons engaged in them would be sustained and reinforced by the citizens of the populous border counties of Missouri, from whence they were only separated by the river. In one case witnessed by your committee, an application for the writ of habeas corpus was prevented by the urgent solicitation of pro-slavery men, who insisted that it would endanger the life of the prisoner to be discharged under legal process.
While we remained in the territory, repeated acts of outrage were committed upon the quiet, unoffending citizens, of which we received authentic intelligence. Men were attacked on the highway, robbed, and subsequently imprisoned. Men were seized and searched, and their weapons of defense taken from them without compensation. Horses were frequently taken and appropriated. Oxen were taken from the yoke while plowing, and butchered in the presence of their owners. One young man was seized in the streets of the town of Atchison, and under circumstances of gross barbarity was tarred and cottoned, and in that condition was sent to his family. All the provisions of the constitution of the United States, securing persons and property, are utterly disregarded. The officers of the law, instead of protecting the people, were in some instances engaged in these outrages, and in no instance did we learn that any man was arrested, indicted, or punished for any of these crimes. While such offenses were committed with impunity, the laws were used as a means of indicting men for holding elections, preliminary to framing a constitution and applying for admission into the Union as the state of Kansas. Charges of high treason were made against prominent citizens upon grounds which seem to your committee absurd and ridiculous, and under these charges they are now held in custody and are refused the privilege of bail. In several cases, men were arrested in the state of Missouri while passing on their lawful business through the state, and detained until indictments could lie found in the territory.
These proceedings were followed by an offense of still greater magnitude. Under color of legal process, a company of about 700 arm< d men, the great body of whom your committee are satisfied were not citizens of the territory, marched into the town of Lawrence under Marshal Donaldson and S. J. Jones, officers claiming to act under the law, and bombarded and then burned to the ground a valuable hotel and one private house; destroyed two printing-presses and material; and then, being released by the officers, whose posse they claim to be, proceeded to sack, pillage, and rob houses, stores, trunks, etc., even to the clothing of women and children. Some of the letters thus unlawfully taken were private ones, written by the contesting delegate, and they were offered in evidence. Your committee did not deem that the persons holding them had any right thus to use them, and refused to be made the instruments to report private letters thus obtained.
This force was not resisted, because it was collected and marshaled under the forms of law. But this act of barbarity, unexampled in the history of our government, was followed by its natural consequences. All the restraints which American citizens are accustomed to pay even to the appearance of law, were thrown off; one act of violence led to another; homicides became frequent. A party under H. C. Pate, composed chiefly of citizens of Missouri, were taken prisoners by a party of settlers; and while your committee were at Westport, a company, chiefly of Missourians, accompanied by the acting delegate, went to relieve Pate and his party, and a collision was prevented by the United States troops. Civil war has seemed impending in the territory. Nothing can prevent so great a calamity but the presence of a large force of United States troops, under a commander who will with prudence and discretion quiet the excited passions of both parties, and expel with force the armed bands of lawless men coming from Missouri and elsewhere, who, with criminal pertinacity, infest that territory.
In some cases, and as to one entire election district, the condition of the country prevented the attendance of witnesses, who were either arrested or detained while obeying our process, or deterred from so doing. The sergeantat-arms who served the processes upon them was himself arrested and detained for a short time by an armed force, claiming to be a part of the posse of the marshal, but was allowed to proceed upon an examination of his papers, and was furnished with a pass signed by "Warren D. Wilkes, of South Carolina." John Upton, another officer of the committee, was subsequently stopped by a lawless force on the borders of the territory, and after being detained and treated with great indignity, was released. He also was furnished with a pass signed by two citizens of Missouri, and addressed to "pro-slavery men." By reason of these disturbances, we were delayed in Westport, so that while in session there, our time was but partially occupied.
But the obstruction which created the most serious embarrassment to your committee was the attempted arrest of Gov. Reeder, the contesting delegate, upon a writ of attachment issued against him by Judge Lecompte to compel his attendance as a witness before the grand jury of Douglas county. William Fane, recently from the state of Georgia, and claiming to be the deputy marshal, came into the room of the committee while Gov. Reeder was examining a witness before us, and producing the writ, required Gov. Reeder to attend him. Subsequent events have only strengthened the conviction of your committee that this was a wanton and unlawful interference by the judge who issued the writ, tending greatly to obstruct a full and fair investigation. Gov. Reeder and Gen. Whitfield alone were possessed of that local information which would enable us to elicit the whole truth, and it was obvious to every one that any event which would separate either of them from the committee would necessarily hinder, delay, and embarrass it. Gov. Reeder claimed that, under the circumstances in which he was placed, he was privileged from arrest except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. As this was a question of privilege, proper for the courts, or for the privileged person alone to determine on his peril, we declined to give him any protection or take any action in the matter. He refused to obey the writ, believing it to be a mere pretense to get the custody of his person, and fearing, as he alleged, that he would be assassinated by lawless bands of men then gathering in and near Lecompton. He then left the territory.
Subsequently, H. Miles Moore, an attorney in Leavenworth City, but for several years a citizen of Westport, Mo., kindly furnished the committee information as to the residence of persons voting at the elections, and in some cases examined witnesses before us. He was arrested on the streets of that town by an armed band of about thirty men, headed by W. D. Wilkes, without any color of authority, confined, with other citizens, under a military guard for twenty-four hours, and then notified to leave the territory. His testimony was regarded as important, and upon his sworn statement that it would endanger his person to give it openly, the majority of your committee deemed it proper to examine him ex parte, and did so.
By reason of these occurrences, the contestant, and the party with and for whom he acted, were unrepresented before us during a greater portion of the time, and your committee were required to ascertain the truth in the best manner they could.
Your committee report the following facts and conclusions as established by the testimony:
First: That each election in the territory, held under the organic or alleged territorial law, has been carried on by organized invasions from the state of Missouri, by which the people of the territory have been prevented from exercising the rights secured to them by the organic law.
Second: That the alleged territorial legislature was an illegally constituted body, and had no power to pass valid laws, and their enactments are, therefore, null and void.
Third: That these alleged laws have not, as a general thing, been used to protect persons and property and to punish wrong, but for unlawful purposes.
Fourth : That the election under which the pitting delegate, John W. Whitfield, holds his seat, was not held in pursuance of any valid law, and that it should be regarded only as the expression of the choice of those resident citizens who voted for him.
Fifth : That the election under which the contesting delegate, Andrew H. Reeder, claims his seat, was not held in pursuance of law, and that it should be regarded only as the expression of the choice of the resident citizens who voted for him.
Sixth : That Andrew H. Reeder received a greater number of votes of resident citizens than John W. Whitfield, for delegate.
Seventh : That in the present condition of the territory, a fair election cannot be held without a new census, a stringent and well-guarded election law, the selection of impartial judges, and the presence of United States troops at every place of election.
Eighth : That the various elections held by the people of the territory preliminary to the formation of the state government, have been as regular as the disturbed condition of the territory would allow ; and that the constitution passed by the convention held in pursuance of said elections, embodies the will of a majority of the people.
As it is not the province of your committee to suggest remedies for the existing troubles in the territory of Kansas, they content themselves with the foregoing statement of facts.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
John Sherman.
The free state constitution,[1] framed at Topeka, as set forth in the foregoing report, was duly submitted to congress, and referred, in both houses, to the committees on territories ; but the accompanying memorial from the free state legislature, setting forth the grounds of the application, and praying for admission as a state, was rejected by the senate on the allegation that material changes had been made in it since it left Kansas. The senate also rejected repeated motions to accept the constitution and admit Kansas as a free state ; but sixteen senators being found in favor of such admission.
In the house, the majority of the committee on territories reported in favor of the admission of Kansas, under the aforesaid constitution, as a free state ; and after debate, the previous question thereon was ordered on the 28th of June by a vote of 98 ayes to 63 noes. Previous to this, Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, had proposed, as an amendment or substitute, a radically different bill, contemplating the appointment by the president and senate of five commissioners, who should repair to Kansas, take a census of the inhabitants and legal voters, and thereupon proceed to apportion, during the month of September, 1856, the delegates (52) to form a constitutional convention, to be elected by the legal voters aforesaid; said delegates to be chosen on the day of the presidential election (Tuesday, November 4th, 1856,) and to assemble in convention on the first Monday in December, 1856, to form a state constitution. The bill proposed, also, penalties for illegal voting at said election.
To this substitute bill, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, proposed the following amendment, to come in at the end as an additional section:
Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth section and of the thirty-second section of the act passed at the first session of the thirty-third congress, commonly called the Kansas and Nebraska act, as reads as follows: "Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into any state or territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the same is hereby repealed; provided, that any person or persons lawfully held to service within either of the territories named in said act shall be discharged from such service, if they shall not be removed and kept out of said territories within twelve months from the passage of this act.
This amendment to the Stephens substitute was carried by a vote of 109 to 102, and the bill, thus amended by its adversaries, was abandoned by its friends and received but two votes, Dunn, of Indiana, and Harrison, of Ohio.
Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, now moved that the bill reported by the committee do lie on the table, which was defeated by a vote of yeas, 106; nays, 107. The house now refused to adjourn by a vote of 106 to 102; and after a long struggle, the final question was reached and the bill rejected, by a vote of 10*7 to 106. On the 1st of July, Mr. Barclay, of Pennsylvania, moved a reconsideration of the preceding vote by which the free Kansas bill had been rejected. The reconsideration was carried on the 3d of July, by a vote of 101 to 99. The previous question on the passage of the bill was then ordered, and the bill was finally passed, yeas, 99; nays, 97.
On the 30th of June, Mr. Douglas reported to the senate on several bills submitted by Messrs. Clayton, Toombs and others for the pacification of the Kansas troubles, as also against Governor Seward's proposition to admit Kansas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Mr. Collamer, being the minority of the territorial committee, made a counter report. Mr. Douglas gave notice that he would ask for a final vote on the 3d of July. The bill was debated on the 1st and 2d of July, and the following night, the majority re sisting all motions to adjourn. An amendment, moved by Mr. Adams, of Mississippi, striking out so much of the bill as secured the right of suffrage in the proposed reörganization of Kansas to alien residents who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, and renounced all allegiance to foreign governments, was adopted by a vote of 22 to 16. Sometime in the morning of July 3d, the following amendment, reduced to shape by Mr. Geyer, of Missouri, was added to the 18th section of the bill, by a vote of 40 to 3:
"No law shall be made or have force or effect in said territory [of Kansas] which shall require any attestation or oath to support any act of congress other legislative act, as a qualification for any civil office, public trust, or for any employment or profession, or to serve as juror, or vote at any election, or which shall impose any tax upon, or condition to, the exercise of the right of suffrage, by any qualified voter, or which shall restrain or prohibit the free discussion of any law or subject of legislation in the said territory, or the free expression of opinion thereon by the people of said territory."
Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved the following:
"And be it further enacted, That it was the true intent and meaning of the 'act to organize the territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' not to legislate slavery into Kansas, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free through their territorial legislature to regulate the institution of slavery in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; and that, until the territorial legislature acts upon the subject, the owner of a slave in one of the states has no right or authority to take such slave into the territory of Kansas, and there hold him as a slave; but every slave taken to the territory of Kansas by his owner for the purposes of settlement is hereby declared to be free, unless there is some valid act of a duly constituted legislative assembly of said territory, under which he may be held as a slave."
The yeas and nays being ordered, the proposition was voted down; yeas, 9 nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then proposed the following:
"And be it further enacted, That the provision in the 'act to organize the territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' which declares it to be' the true intent and meaning 'of said act' not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States,' was intended to, and does, confer upon, or leave to, the people of the territory of Kansas full power, at anytime, through its territorial legislature, to exclude slavery from said territory or to recognize and regulate it therein."
This was also voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then submitted the following:
"And be it further enacted, That all the acts and proceedings of all and every body of men heretofore assembled in said territory of Kansas, and claiming to be a legislative assembly thereof, with authority to pass laws for the government of said territory, are hereby declared to be utterly null and void. And no person shall hold any office, or exercise any authority or jurisdiction in said territory, under or by virtue of any power or Authority derived from such legislative assembly; nor shall the members thereof exercise any power or authority as such."
This, too, was voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 36. Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, moved the following amendment:
And be it further enacted, That, until the inhabitants of said territory shall proceed to hold a convention to form a state constitution according to the provisions of this act, and so long as said territory remains a territory, the following sections contained in chapter one hundred and fifty-one, in the volume transmitted to the senate by the President of the United States, as containing the laws of Kansas, be, and the same are hereby, declared to be utterly null and void, viz.:
"Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years.
"Sec. 13. No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in this territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of any prosecution for the violation of any one of the sections of this act."
This was rejected, as superfluous, or covered by the amendment of Mr. Geyer; yeas, 13; nays, 32. Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, proposed the following:
And be it further enacted, That until the people of said territory shall form a constitution and state government, and be admitted into the Union under the provisions of this act, there shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any state, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her service or labor as aforesaid.
This was voted down; yeas, 10; nays, 35. Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, moved that the whole bill be stricken out, and another inserted instead, repealing all the territorial laws of Kansas. This was rejected; yeas, 8; nays, 35. Mr. Seward moved to strike out the whole bill, and insert instead one admitting Kansas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Lost, yeas, 11; nays, 36. The bill was now reported as amended, and the amendment made in committee of the whole concurred in. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and on the question of its final passage the vote stood, yeas, 33; nays, 12. The bill was then sent to the house. The title is as follows: "An act to authorize the people of the territory of Kansas to form a constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states."
This bill was never acted on in the house, but lay on the speaker's table when the session terminated on the 18th of August. In the senate, on the 8th of July, Mr. Douglas reported hack from the committee on territories the house bill to admit Kansas as a state, with an amendment, striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting instead '.he senate bill above referred to. Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, moved to amend this substitute by providing that all who migrate to the territory prior to July 4th, 1857, shall be entitled to vote in determining the character of the institutions of Kansas. Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved that all the territorial laws of Kansas be repealed and the territorial officers dismissed. Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, proposed an amendment prohibiting slavery in all that portion of the Louisiana purchase north of 36° 30', not included in the territory of Kansas. These propositions were severally rejected, and the substitute reported by Mr. Douglas agreed to. This amendment was, however, never acted upon by the house.
In the house, on the 29th of July, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, called up a bill "to reörganize the territory of Kansas and for other purposes," which he had originally proposed as a substitute for the before-mentioned senate bill. The two last sections of Mr. Dunn's bill are as follows:
Sec. 24. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth section, and also so much of the thirty-second section, of the act passed at the first session of the thirty-third congress, commonly known as the Kansas-Nebraska act, as reads as follows, to wit: "Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the same is hereby repealed, and the said eighth section of said act of the 6th of March, 1820, is hereby revived and declared to be in full force and effect within the said territories of Kansas and Nebraska; provided, however, that any person lawfully held to service in either of said territories shall not be discharged from such service by reason of such repeal and revival of said eighth section, if such person shall be permanently removed from such territory or territories prior to the 1st day of January, 1858; and any child or children born in either of said territories, of any female lawfully held to service, if in like manner removed without said territories before the expiration of that date, shall not be, by reason of anything in this act, emancipated from any service it might have owed had this act never been passed; and provided further, that any person lawfully held to service in any other state or territory of the United States, and escaping into either the territory of Kansas or Nebraska, may be reclaimed and removed to the person or place where snch service ia due, under any law of the United States which shall be in force upon the subject.
Sec. 25. And be it further enacted, That all other parts of the aforesaid Kansas-Nebraska act which relate to the said territory of Kansas, and every other law or usage having, or which is pretended to have, any force or effect in said territory in conflict with the provisions or the spirit of this act, except such laws of congress and treaty stipulations as relate to the Indians, are hereby repealed, and declared void.
Mr. Dunn moved to strike out a bill previously introduced by Mr. Grow, repealing all the acts of the alleged territorial legislature of Kansas, and the insertion of his own as a substitute. This motion prevailed; and Mr. Dunn moved the previous question on ordering this bill to be engrossed and read a third time, which prevailed, and the bill passed, yeas, 88; nays, 74. This bill was not acted upon by the senate.
When the annual appropriation bills came before congress, the house affixed to several of them provisos respecting the obnoxious acts of the territorial legislature of Kansas; these were resisted by the senate, and finally given up by the house save one, appropriating $20,000 for the pay and expenses of the next territorial legislature. This the senate gave up, and thus secured the passage of the civil appropriation bill. The army bill remained unpassed when the session terminated, as the two houses could not agree on a proviso forbidding the employment of the army to enforce the acts of the Kansas Shawnee-Mission legislature. In this state of affairs, the president issued his proclamation, convening an extra session, August 21st, three days after the termination of the former session. A quorum was present, and the house repassed the army bill with the same proviso attached, which proviso was again struck out by the senate, and reinserted by the house. The senate insisted on its disagreement, and the house decided to adhere to its proviso by a close vote. The senate also voted to adhere. Mr. Clayton, in the senate, proposed a committee of conference, which was objected to. Mr. Campbell in the house made the same proposition, which was likewise objected to. The struggle continued until the 30th, when the house again passed the army bill with the proviso modified. This gave no better satisfaction to the senate. It was struck out, and the bill returned to the house, which finally concurred in the senate amendment by a vote of 101 yeas to 97 nays. The use of the army in Kansas was left at the president's discretion.
- ↑ Article I. Sec. 6. There shall be no slavery in this state, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime.