Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/718

 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