Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/713

 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