this foreign influence individual societies and organizations might have gone on to promulgate their opinions, and put forth their efforts to make this a free State, without ever having produced any unnatural excitement. The people of Missouri felt that through the institutions of Kansas their institution of slavery was to be affected. And if they had seen large masses of free State people settling here, that they would have endeavored to counteract it by throwing over their citizens as settlers of the Territory. I saw no emigration from the north of the class I have mentioned coming up the river.

I know Lewis Burns. He lived in Weston on June 10, 1854. J. H. R. Cundiff lived in Parkville, June 10, 1854. I have looked over the proceedings of a public meeting, published in the Parkville Luminary of June 10, 1854, of which Mr. Burns was president and Mr. Cundiff was secretary. I do not recognize the proceedings of that meeting but the eighth and ninth resolutions, which were as follows:

8. Resolved, That we recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in the Territory, and recommend to slaveholders to introduce their property as fast as possible.

9. Resolved, That we afford protection to no abolitionists as settlers in Kansas Territory.

According to my belief they embody the general sentiment at that time, and which has continued to the present time, and is worse now than it was then. When I speak of this ninth resolution I mean abolitionists in its proper sense. I do not mean a man who is in favor of a free State, or a man who may be properly called a free-soiler. Such men I esteem to be gentlemen and have no objection to their settlement here. But by abolitionists has been understood here, in this community, to be men who believed it to be a virtue to steal and run off slaves.

I was over at the election of November for General Whitfield; and, indeed, have voted at every election in the Territory, as I regarded myself a citizen of that Territory from the beginning.

LEAVENWORTH CITY, K. T., May 30, 1856.

AMOS REES.

WM. H. TEBBS recalled.

To Mr. King:

I was a member of the last grand jury of Jefferson county, Kansas Territory, which sat about the 2d Monday in March last, and from that time on to the first of April. Dr. Francis was examined before the grand jury. I knew a Mr. Hutchinson a lawyer who was before the grand jury. Mr. Hutchinson made his appearance there in Osawkee, and after those developements were made before the grand jury by Dr. Francis, and he had said that Mr. Hutchinson was in the lodge when he was initiated, we summoned him to appear before us. Before we asked him any questions I gave him to understand that some developements had been made before us. I put questions to him in relation to this order, which he immediately refused to answer, on the ground that they would criminate himself, and that we had no

jurisdiction over the matter, as we were enquiring about what was out of our county. The question was then written out, and submitted to Judge Lecompte, who presided, and he decided it was competent. When we returned into the jury room Mr. Hutchinson then immediately asked permission to go into the court room below and attend to a case he had there. We told him that as a matter of courtesy we would let him go, but we would expect him to return as soon as he got through his case. We waited some time, and he did not return, and he never came back again, and I have never seen him since. To Mr. Sherman :

We had been interrogating him in relation to this secret society in Lawrence. Judge Lecompte held that we had no authority to enquire as to what took place in Lawrence, unless we believed it implicated some one in our county. We did so hold, and upon that ground he decided the enquiry competent.

WESTPORT, MISSOURI, June 4, 1856.

W. H. TEBBS.

To Mr. Oliver:

JOHN SCOTT testifies.

Prior to the election in Burr Oak precinct, in the fourteenth district on the 29th of November, 1854, I had been a resident of Missouri and I then determined, if I found it necessary, to become a resident of Kansas Territory. On the day previous to that election I settled up my board at my boarding-house in St. Joseph's, Missouri, and went over to the Territory and took boarding with Mr. Bryant, near whose house the polls were held the next day, for one month, so that I might have it in my power, by merely determining to do so, to become a resident of the Territory on the day of election. I was present at Mr. Harding's when the polls were held on the morning of election prior to and at the time the judges were appointed. When my name was suggested as a judge of the election, no such suggestion had been made to or in regard to me that I was aware of, until the hour of opening the polls had arrived, when, by the absence of two judges appointed by the governor, it became necessary to select others in their places. When my name was proposed as a judge of election, objections were made by two persons only, so far I knew, Messrs. Harding and Larzelere, in regard to my want of residence in the Territory. I then publicly informed those present that I had a claim in the Territory; that I had taken board in the Territory for a month, and that I could at any moment become an actual resident and legal voter in the Territory, and that I would do so if I concluded at any time during the day that my vote would be necessary to carry that precinct in favor of the pro-slavery candidate for delegate to Congress, and that I knew of no law requiring a judge of that election selected by the voters present to be a resident of the Territory. I was then elected, took the oath prescribed by the governor, and faithfully and impartially discharged the duties of judge of that election, swearing

every man who offered to vote, and was not known to be an actual resident of the Terriorty, requiring each one to state that that was his actual place of residence in preference to all other places. I did not during the day consider it necessary to become a resident of the Territory for the purpose mentioned, and did not vote or offer to vote at that election. The statements made by Alfred Larzelere in his testimony before this committee in regard to my declaring myself a citizen of the Territory is false, and he knew it to be so when he made it. Benjamin Harding, the only judge appointed by the governor who was present, claimed the right publicly to select the other two judges, and undertook to exercise that right, which caused a great deal of excitement among the people present. He also claimed the right before being ratified as judge to determine who were and who were not qualified to vote for judges, or to be selected as judges of election. Concluding I was not qualified to act as judge, he refused to put my name to vote when nominated by persons present, whereupon it was done by some of the bystanders, and I was almost unanimously chosen judge of that election by those present. No efforts, that I know of, were made to interfere with any one entitled to vote.

Cross-examined by Mr. Howard:

I held the office of city attorney for St. Joseph's at that time, and had held it for two or three years previously, and continued to hold it afterwards until this spring. I never acted as judge of election in St. Joseph's in my life. I voted at an election in St. Joseph's; in the spring of 1855 I was re-appointed city attorney. The question of slavery was put in issue at the election of November, 1854, to the same extent as in every election in this Territory. General Whitfield was regarded as the pro-slavery candidate, and had been selected as the pro-slavery candidate by the pro-slavery party. I regarded the the question of slavery as the primarily prominent issue at that election, and, so far as I know, all parties agreed in making that question the issue of that election. My removal into the Territory would have vacated my office without any resignation of my office, and if I had determined to become a citizen of the Territory on the day of election, when I acted as judge, my office of city attorney of St. Joseph's would have thereby become vacated without any further action on my part. It is my intention, and the intention of a great many other Missourians, now resident in Missouri, whenever the slavery issue is to be determined upon by the people of this Territory in the adoption of the State constitution, to remove to this Territory in time to acquire the right to become legal voters upon that question. The leading purpose of our intended removal to the Territory is to determine the domestic institutions of this Territory when it comes to be a State, and we would not come but for that purpose, and would never think of coming here but for that purpose. I believe there are a great many in Missouri who are so situated. This is one of the means decided upon by Missourians to counteract the movements of the Emigrant Aid Society to determine the character of the institutions of this Territory when it comes to be a State.

LEAVENWORTH CITY, K. T., May 27, 1856.

JOHN SCOTT.

ANDREW H. REEDER called and sworn:

I was appointed governor of the Territory of Kansas about July 1, 1854, and as soon as the nomination was confirmed by the Senate, I proceeded to Washington city, at the request of the President of the United States, and remained there till the adjournment of Congress, in the first week of August, engaged in procuring necessary legislation for the Territory. I returned to Easton, I think, on the 7th of August. My arrangements for closing up a most extensive private and professional business, extending over six counties, were seriously retarded and prevented by a term of three weeks' court which followed; and on the 21st September I departed for the Terrritory, leaving my business in a most unsatisfactory condition. I landed at Fort Leavenworth on Saturday, the 7th day of October, and made it my first business to obtain information of the geography, settlements, population, and general condition of the Territory, with a view to its division into districts, the defining of their boundaries, the ascertainment of suitable and central places for elections, and the full names of men in each district for election officers, persons to take the census, justices of the peace, and constables. In a very few days I discovered that the procurement of this knowledge, in consequence of the newness of the population, was utterly impossible, by any other means than by a tour through the Territory. I found that, unlike most new Territories, the settlements of which cluster along a single line, the small population of Kansas was sparsely distributed over a surface of about 20.000 square miles. With some trouble arising from the want of travelling facilities, I made the necessary arrangements, and on the 14th of October I left, with two of the Territorial judges, Messrs. Elmore and Johnson, the district attorney, Mr. Isaacs, the United States marshal, Mr. Donaldson, and my private secretary, Mr. Williams, for a trip into the interior, to procure the requisite information. The secretary and chief justice had not then arrived in the Territory. I took in the route the payments of the Pottawatomie and Kansas Indians, where a large number of whites as well as Indians were assembled; and having made full notes of all the information procured from Indians and whites, I completed my trip, and arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the 7th of November. I then saw that if the election for delegate to Congress (which required no previous census) should be postponed till an election could be had for legislature, with its preliminary census and apportionment, the greater part of the session, which would terminate on the 4th of March, would expire before our congressional delegate could reach Washington; and I deemed it best to order an election for a delegate to Congress as early as possible, and to postpone the taking of the census till after that election. I was more convinced of the propriety of this course, by the fact that the common law and many of the United States statutes were in force over the Territory, and could well be administered through the courts established by Congress, and the justices and constables whom I was authorized to appoint; and by the additional fact that whilst the citizens of Missouri were vehemently

urging an immediate election of the legislature, the citizens of the Territory were generally of the opinion that no immediate necessity for it existed. I prepared, without delay, a division of the Territory into election districts, defined by natural boundaries, easily understood and known, fixed a place of election in each, appointed election officers for each poll, and ordered an election for congressional delegate to take place on the the 29th of November, 1854, and by the 15th of November my proclamations were issued, containing a description of the districts, with all the necessary information, instructions, and forms.

These proclamations were immediately distributed by express throughout the Territory. About the 24th of November the want of necessary conveniences induced me to remove the executive office to Shawnee Mission. By the fifth of December the returns of the congressional election were made, and on the sixth a certificate of election was issued to J. W. Whitfield, who stood highest on the return. Immediately thereafter public business called me into the interior of the Territory, and, having attended to the same, and also to some private business incidentally, which latter, however, did not detain me over two days, I returned to my office about the first of January, and immediately commenced the preparation of books and precepts for taking the census, preparatory to an election for the legislature. Much unavoidable delay occurred in the proceeding from the want of mail and travelling facilities, the difficulty of notifying the various and more remote persons appointed to take the census, from the sparseness of the population in making the enumeration and return; and yet in less than seventy days the census books and the instructions were distributed over the entire Territory, and the enumeration was fully completed and returned. A return day was fixed in the precept of each census taker, but several of them found it necessary to prolong the time in order to complete their work, and the last returns were made late in the evening of Saturday, the third of March. I immediately proceeded to make the apportionment, designate such new election precincts as had become necessary, to appoint election afficers, and to prepare necessary forms and instructions; and on the sixth or seventh of March my proclamation for the election on the thirtieth was completed, and despatched by express to the printing affice, about forty miles distant; a large number of copies were received by me of the printer, and immediately distributed through the Territory, under arrangements previously matured for that purpose. The precise day of the election was never fixed by me, or communicated to any one else, at home or abroad, until about the sixth of March, when I was writing the proclamation. Before the returns of the census had been all received it was impossible to fix the precise day, and I could only judge that the election would probably take place about the twenty-fifth to the twenty-eighth of March, and I did not hesitate so to state, without reserve, to citizens of the Territory who made inquiry. I so stated to a number of prominent men of the pro-slavery party, and it was editorially announced in the Frontier News, published at Westport, some time before the election, (I think more than four weeks before,) that the election would take place on