Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/785

 United States Senate. The discrepancies between the statements of this letter and those contained in your official communication of the 19th of September, are such that the president directs me to inclose you a copy for explanation.

2em

" Secretary of State:

" Your dispatch of the 4th instant, inclosing me a copy of Judge Lecompte's letter in the Hays case, and calling my attention 'to discrepancies between the statements of that letter, and those contained in your (my) official communication of 19th of September last,' and requesting 'explanation,' was received by the last mail.

"In reply, I have simply to state, that 'what I have written, I have written,' and I have nothing further to add, alter or amend on this subject.

"My executive minutes, faithfully chronicling my official actions, and the policy which dictated them at the time they occurred, and my various dispatches to the government, contain but the simple truth, told without fear, favor, or affection, and I will esteem it a favor to have them all published for the inspection of the country."Your obedient servant,

"Governor of Kansas Territory."

The president made a show of removing Lecompte, by nominating Mr. Harrison, of Kentucky, to the senate, without issuing a writ of supersedas. This enabled the senate to withhold their confirmation of Harrison's appointment, and Judge Lecompte remained in office.

During the latter part of September, information was received by Governor Geary that Colonel Lane, with a force of a thousand men and several pieces of artillery, was preparing to enter Kansas by way of Nebraska. A detachment of troops, accompanied by deputy marshal Preston, was immediately sent to the northern frontier. They arrested Captain James Redpath and 130 men, who had entered the territory armed, equipped and organized, and escorted them to Lecompton. Redpath, in an interview with the governor, convinced him that the prisoners were a company of peaceable immigrants, and they were accordingly released.

Another representation was made to the governor, that Redpath's party was but an advanced guard of the forces of Lane, who had contracted with the ferryman at Nebraska City, for the transit of 100 men and three pieces of cannon. Three hundred dragoons under Colonels Cook and Johnson were forthwith dispatched to intercept their passage.

On the 1st of October a deputation waited upon the governor, stating that they had been sent by General Pomeroy and Colonels Eldridge and Perry, who were escorting three hundred immigrants into the territory by way of Nebraska; that they did not come to disturb the peace, but as bona fide settlers