Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/727

 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,