Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/772

 protection to the persons, property, and civil rights to all peaceable and law-abiding inhabitants of the territory.

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be attached the seal of the territory of Kansas.

"Done at the city of Lecompton, this twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-six, and of the independence of the United States the eightieth.

", Acting Governor, K. T."

Private letters were written by the acting governor to parties in Missouri, calling for men, money, and the munitions of war, to carry out the purposes of the pro-slavery party. The address, the proclamation, and the letters had the effect of calling into the territory large numbers of armed men, chiefly from Missouri, with passions highly inflamed, and prepared for a war of extermination against the free state settlements. Such was the state of affairs on the arrival of governor Geary at Lecompton.

In accordance with his proclamation, he forthwith proceeded to disband all the armed bodies in the territory which had been collected under the authority of secretary Woodson, and to this end he issued the following orders to the proper military officers; and on the same day sent the following dispatch to secretary Marcy:

"

" You will proceed without a moment's delay to disarm and disband the present organized militia of the territory, in accordance with the instructions of the president, and the proclamations which I have issued, copies of which you will find enclosed. You will also take care to have the arms belonging to the territory deposited in a place of safety and under proper accountability.

"Yours, &c., "Governor of Kansas Territory."

" You will take charge of the arms of the territory of Kansas, now in the hands of the militia about to be disbanded and mustered out of the service by the adjutant-general. You will also carefully preserve the same agreeably to the 15th section of the act of assembly, to organize, discipline, and govern the militia of the territory.

"Yours, &c., "Governor of Kansas Territory."

"Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

" I arrived here late on the night of the 10th inst., having