and bitterly partizan meeting, whose direct tendency was to produce violence and disorder, but, before any law is passed in the Territory, he prejudges the character of the 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. (11) The following resolutions, offered by Judge Payne, a member elect of the House, were unanimously adopted:

"Resolved, 1st. That we heartily endorse the action of the committee of citizens that shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a rail, and had sold by a negro, William Phillips, the moral perjurer.

"2d. That we return our thanks to the committee for faithfully performing the trust enjoined upon them by the pro-slavery party. "3d. That the committee be now discharged.

4th. That we severely condemn those pro-slavery men who, from mercenary motives, are calling upon the pro-slavery party to submit without further action.

"5th. 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 30th in the 16th district.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

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 Kan"The Journal of the Council of the Territory of Kansas;" and The Journal of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Kansas.'

sas;

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, 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. To avoid the evils of anarchy, no armed or organized resistance to them would have been made, but the citizens would have appealed to the ballot-box at future elections, to the federal judiciary, and to Congress, for relief. Such, from the proof, would have been the course of the people but for the nature of

(11) R. R. Rees.

these enactments and the manner in which they are enforced. Their character and their execution have been so intimately connected with one branch of this investigation—that relating to "violent and tumultuous proceedings in the Territory"-that we were compelled to examine them.

The "laws" in the statute-books are general and special; the latter are strictly of a local character, relating to bridges, roads, and the like. 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;"(1) the words "county court" "shall be construed to mean the board of commissioners transacting county business, or the probate courts, according to the intent thereof." The words "circuit court" to mean "district court."(2)

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 efficers, 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 officer 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.(3) 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. (6)__ A candidate to be eligible at this election must swear to support the Fugitive Slave law, (7) and each judge of election, and each voter, if challenged, must take the same oath. (8) The same oath is required of every officer elected or appointed in the Territory, and of every attorney admitted to practice in the courts. (9)

A portion of the militia is required to muster on the day of election.(10) "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 officers."(11) 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. (12) 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,(13) could vote as an "inhabitant," although he had breakfasted in Missiouri, and intended to return there for supper. There can be no doubt that these unusual and unconstitutional provisions were 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 intolerant 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 the first and second election districts. He had made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the settlers by his conduct on the 30th of March, in the second district, and by his burning the cabins of Joseph Oakley and Samuel Smith.(14)

THE ELECTION OF OCTOBER 1, 1855.

An election for delegate to Congress, to be held on the 1st day of October, 1855, was provided for under the same rules and regulations as were applied to other elections. The free-State men took no part in this election, having made arrangements for holding an election on the 9th of the same month. The citizens of Missouri attended at the election of the 1st of October, some paying the dollar tax, others not being required to pay it. They were present and voted at the voting places of Atchison(1) and Doniphan, (2) in Atchison county; at Green Springs, Johnson county ;(3) at Willow Springs, (4) Franklin, (5) and Lecompton, (6) in Douglas county; at Fort Scott, Bourbon county; (7)

at Baptiste Paola, Lykins county, where some Indians voted, some whites paying the dollar tax for them ;(8) at Leavenworth City (9) and at Kickapoo City, Leavenworth county; at the latter place under the lead of General B. F. Stringfellow and Colonel Lewis Burns, of Missouri. (10) From two of the election precincts at which it was alleged there was illegal voting, viz: Delaware and Wyandott, your committee failed to obtain the attendance of witnesses.

You committee did not deem it necessary, in regard to this election, to enter into details, as it was manifest that from there being but one candidate, General Whitfield, he must have received a majority of the votes cast. This election, therefore, depends not upon the number or character of the votes received, but upon the validity of the laws under which it was held. Sufficient testimony was taken to show that the voting of citizens of Missouri was practised at this election, as at all former elections in the Territory. The following table will exhibit the result of the testimony as regards the number of legal and illegal votes at this election.

The county of Marshall embraces the same territory as was included in the 11th district, and the reasons before stated indicate that the great majority of the votes there cast were either illegal or fictitious. In the counties to which our examination extended, there were 857 illegal votes cast, as near as the proof will enable us to determine.

While the alleged legislative assembly was in session, a movement was instituted to form a State government, and apply for admission into the Union as a State. The first step taken by the people of the Territory, in consequence of the invasion of March 30, 1855, was the circulation, for signature, of a graphic and truthful memorial to Congress. Your committee find that every allegation in this memorial has been sustained by the testimony. No further step was taken, as it was hoped that some action by the general government would protect them in their rights. When the alleged legislative assembly proceeded to construct the series of enactments referred to, the settlers. were of opinion that submission to them would result in entirely depriving them of the rights secured to them by the organic law. Their political condition was freely discussed in the Territory during the summer of 1855. Several meetings were held in reference to holding a convention to form a State government, and to apply for admission into the Union as a State. Public opinion gradually settled in favor of such an application to the Congress to meet in December, 1855. The first general meeting was held in Lawrence, on the 15th of August, 1855. The following preamble and resolution were there passed:

"Whereas the people of Kansas 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 com