Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-03-27

in matter of such general IN
terest aud Importance, and especially for rea-
sons which might be considered by the pubic
mind trivial or insufficient, we would expose
ourselvs to the charge oil willlully shunnihg
a plain duty, and seeking to leave the cues
ton in doubt and uncertainty. In the opln-
ion of your Committee, nc reasons ought to
be considered, much less urged, against an
entire aud thorough investigation, unless
those reasons are clear, substantial, and con-
vlncing.
Your Committee have required the con-
testant to st tie, among other things. in writ
ing, and with reasonable detail, the facts he
proposes to establish before us by the wit
nesses and papers he asks to have procured,
and he has submitted paper, from which VIC
make the following extract:
THAT Immediately before the 30th day of
March last, being the day fixed for the election
of Legislature for the Territory of Kansas.
large bodies of men, without pretentions to res
idence in the Territory, came over from the
neighboring counties of the State of Missouri,
armed and organized into companies, with their
proper leaders, and supplied with provisions,
fodder, accommodations for camping, ammuni-
ton, and, in one case at least, with artillery
That they marched into the Territory with ban
ners and martial music, and encamped, in par
ties, in the vicinity Of different election polls
shortly before the said election for the purpose
Of preventing the people Of the Territory from
electing members of the Legislative Assembly,
as provided by the act of Congress, of taking
the power into their own hands, and, by intim
idation or Violence. taking possession of the
polls. and themselves going through the from
Of electing members of the Legislature, some of
whom thus elected were non-residents of the
Territory
That the country having been so recently
settled, and the people, us yet, few and sparse,
organized and unprovided with resources of any
kind, were, oil course compelled to submit.
"lhat in the first election district there were
from six hundred to one thousand of these in
vaders on the ground, who declared that they
came to vote, and would vote at all hazards of
life and property and, accordingly, did vote
outnulubering the Inhabitants and by their vi
client conduct deterring them from voting.
THAT in the second election district, Il party
of several hundred ct these persons, on being
refused leave to vote without testifyng to their
residence, made an effort to demolish the house
in which the election was held, and finally by
threats and violence. drove the judges from the
ground, and substituted Others from their own
body whilst the actual residents of the district,
generally, retired to their homes, and declined
voting.
"That in the third election district, several
hundred of them took possession Of the polls,
with similar manifestations of violence and in
tinidntion; substituted election officers from
among themselves, and took the entire control
Of the election, the inhabitants retiring from
the ground.
"ln the fourth, Eth, sixth, and seventh cleo
ton districts, similar bodies of men appeared at
the polls, with more or less military organiza
ton and more or less of intimidation and yio-
lence, in each case voting for members of the
Legislature as though they resided in the Ter
ritory, and producing result different from
that which would have happened il the elections
had been controlled by the qualified voters Of
the districts.
THAT in the sixteenth election district the
election was controlled by a large number OF
non residents, some of whom had come in or
ganlzed and armed, IL day or two before the
election, and established themselves in camp,
near the polls. and who returned to their homes
in the State OF Missouri Immediately after thu
election and some OF whom had come from
Platte County, Missouri by steamboat, in thu
forenoon, voted and returned home by thu
steamboat in the evening and thus over clever
hundred votes were polled, Of which not owe
three hundred were cast by actual inhabitant
Of the Territory. In the thirteenth election
district very few, if any, Of the actual nhabit
ants participated, in consequence of the pres
ence of large body of strang rs, who took til
control of the election, and pol!ed nearly tn
entire vote.
" In the eighteenth, IA small district of som
twenty Or thirty voters,) Il well armed body G
strangers appeared on the election ground, t.
medately after took up their line Of march GU
of the district, and toward Missouri, their leat
er being the Hon. David r. Atchison.
In the eleventh, fourteenth, and ffteent
election districts, the undersigned will endeavt
to prove, and believes he can prove, similar i
legal voting.
:" On the day fixed for passing upon the r.
turns OF these elections, to w.t. the 9Th day
, April, complaints were made to the Governc
from some Of the districts, setting forth the
I facts, and there appeared to be defects in son
of the returns. Seven Of the said distric
| were set aside and in the remaining cases, tt
returns being in form, and no complaint hayir
: been made oil illegal voting, as provided in Il
proclaim ltion, certificates Of election were gran
= cd according to them. The facts in regard
] the uncontested districts have come to the know
: edge OF the undersigned since that time ; al
+ he has also learned that the reason why ii
: same were not contested was, that the inhabi
. ants We're prevented by intimidation and fear
= injury to life or property from doing 50. consi
> ering it unsafe to assume the position of co
y testants. One gentleman who was active
G getting up contest in the sixteenth distrit
), and who made affidavit to the complaint, wa
+ after much denunciation, torcibly seized by
l. party of men, carried off into the State of NJ
p souri, and there lynched with gross indigni
=. and brutal violence.
~ Gan election having been ordered for t
10 22d Of May, 1855, to fill the vacancies Great
: by setting aside certain Of the districts, perso
re were then elected and in the sixteenth distr
&c as your menorialist has since learned, the ell
/, ton was again carried for the same candida
l.. and by tue same means as it had been on t
4 goth OF March but no complaint was tn
=, made. In the other districts the actual inha
~ itants were unmolested and elected other Ri
L. resentatives, who, as well as those of the s
K teenth district, received their certificates FIR,
to the Executive. All the members thus elect
ir on the 22d Of May, however, excepting thu
from the sixteenth district elected BY be
n. of strangers,) were rejected, and their pla
- filled by those whose election had been set asi
io and who had not the certificate of the Govern
as required by the organic act, although
OF Legislature had not the power usually confer
he upon legislative bodies, to judge of the qual
On cations Of their own members.
he 1.-The undersigned also desires to prove til
ot notwithstanding Congress, by the organic ;
~ fixed certain place as the temporary sea-
y" Government for the Territory, and in the So
ne act forbade the Legislature to exercise any p
is er inconsistent with the provisions of said
ID, yet the Legislature, in disregard of said c