The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-04-28

the judges, having manfuIly stood up in
the face of this armed mob and declared
they would do their duty, one portion OF
the mob commenced to tear down the
house, another proceeded to break IN the
door of the Judges room, whilst others,
with drawn knives, posted themselves at
the window. with the proclaimed Pur-
pose of killing any voter who would al
low himself TO be sworn. Voters were
dragged from the window because they
would not show their tickets or vote at
the dictation of the mob, and the inyad-
ers declared openly. at the polls, that they.
would cutthe throats of the judges ifthey
did not receive their votes without re-
quiring an oath as To their residence
The room was finally forced. and the
Judges, surrounded by anarmed, excited
crowd, were offered the alternatives of
resignation or death, and FIVE minutes
were allotted for their decision. The
ballot-box was seized, and, amid shouts
of 'shurra for Missouri, /" was carried into
the mob. The two menaced judges then
left the ground, together with all the re-
sidentcitizens, except few who acted in
the outrage because the result, expected
from It, eonformed to their views, and
because it enables the few to rule the
many. When an excess of the foreign
force was found to be had at one poll, de-
tachments were sent to others where it
was supposed they might be needed
At the polls adjoining the one above al
luded to, one of the judges, minister of
the Gospel, who refused to accede to the
demands of similar mob of some four
hundred armed and organized men, was
driven by violence from his post, and the.
vacancy" filed by themselves. Threats
and violent demonstrations wererife, and
another clergyman, for the expression
OF his opinion, was. assaulted and beaten.
The inhabitants of the district, powerless
TO resist the abundant supply of arms and
ammunition, the organized preparation
and the overwhelming numbers of these
foreigners, left the polls without voting.
In the Lawrence district, where was
the largest camp of these invaders,
speeches were made to them by leading
residents of Missouri, in which it was
said that they would carry their purpose
if need be at the point of the bayonet
and bowie knife, and one voter was fired
at as he was driven from the election
ground Finding they had greater
force than was necessary for that poll,
some two hundred men were drafted
from the number and sentof under their
proper officers to another district, after
which they still polled from this camp
over seven hundred votes. In the
Fourth and Seventh Districts, along the
Sante Fe road, similar scenes were enact
ed The invaders came together in one
armed and organized body, with trains
of fifty wagons, besides horsemen, and
the night before election, pitched their
camp in the vicinity of the polls, and
having appointed their own judges in the
place of those who, from intimidation or
otherwise, failed to attend, they voted
without any proof of residence. In these
two Election Districts, where the census
show one hundred voters, there were
polled three hundred and fourteen votes,
and last fall seven hundred and sixty-fve
votes although large portion of the ac-
tual residents. did not vote upon either
occasion. In the Sixteenth Election Dis
trict, hundreds of men came together as
in the other cases, crossing the river from
Missouri the day before election and en-
camping together, armed and provision
ed, made the fercest threats against the
lives of the Judges, and during the night
called several times at the house of one
of them for the purpose of intimidating
him, declaring in the presence of his wife
that rope had been prepared to hang
him, and although we are not prepared
TO say that these threats would have been
carried out, yet they served to produce
his resignation, and give these invaders,
in the substitution, control of the polls
and on the morning of the election a
steamboat brough from the town of West
on Missouri, to Leavenworth, an acces-
sion to their numbers of several hundred
| more, who returned in the same boat
after depositing their votes. There were
over nine hundred and fifty votes polled,
besides from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty actual residents who were de-
tered or discouraged from voting, while
the census returns show but three hun
dred and eighty-fye votes in the District
month before. Not less than six hun
dred votes were here given by these nom
residents of the Territory, who voted
without being sworn as to their qualifca-
tions, and Immediately after the election,
returned back to Missouri; some of them
being the incumbents of important pub
lie officers there. Indeed, so well was
the character of this foreign vote under
stood that the judges struck out of the
prescribed form of returns, the words,
ss6y LAWFUL resident voters."
We might continue the list of these
sickening details until the blood of eve-
ry freeman would boil with indignation,
but it is useless. One more instance
alone, we will refer to. In the Eigh-
teenth Election District, where the pop
ulation was sparce and no great amount
of foreign votes was needed to overpow-
er it, detachment from Missouri, from
sixty to one hundred, passed in with a
train of wagons, arms and ammunition,
making their camp the night before the
Eelection near Moorestown, the place oi
the polls, without even pretext of resi-
dence, and returning Immediately to
Missouri after their work was done, their
leader and captain being a distinguished
citizen of Missouri, but late the presiding
officer of the Senate of the United States,
and who had bowie-knife and revolver
belted around him, apparently ready to
shed the blood of any man who refused
to be enslaved. Ali these facts We are
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