Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/712

 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