The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-06
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. C., MARCH g. 1856.

the music do not suppose that he would re-
treat, nor do deny anything which is imputed
to him, except, it may be, the bad taste of the
language used in what the Senator has read
Laughter As to his whipping Reeder, every
body knows it. Laughter.
Mr.. WILSON. Well, sir, do not wish to con-
tend with the Senator about the taste of this
border hero.
proceed now with the facts. The census of
Kansas was taken, by the direction of Governor
Reeder, in February, 1855; and then there were
eight thousand five hundred inhabitants, and
two thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven
legal voters, in the Territory. At the ensuing
election-on the 30th of March, 1S55-four thou
sand voters from the State of Missouri passed into
that Territory, and gave their votes. Lawrence,
according to the census, was entitled to less than
five hundred votes. But, sir, nine hundred and
fifty were cast, although nearly one half the legal
voters of Lawrence, if we are to believe the tes-
timony of some of their most respectable citizens
refused to vote on that day. More than eight
hundred Missourians, armed to the teeth, led by
Colonel Young, lawyer of Western Missouri,
went to Lawrence, the home of the New England
men so often assailed and so much misrepresent-
ed in the documents before us. Colonel Young
made a speech, declaring that he would vote or
would shed his blood. He took the precaution,
however, to swear in his vote. He had more re-
gard for his life than he had for his conscience.
Mr.. YULEE. VIII the Senator excuse me for
a moment?
Mr.. WILSON. Certainly
Mr.. YULEE. have been listening with much
interest to the Senator's remarks, and desire to
ask him, as he proceeds with his statements Of
fact, to refer us to the authority which he re-
lies.
Mr. WILSON. Mr.. President, l state what
have said the authority of Mr.. Hutchinson,
a lawyer of Lawrence, and a rejected Free State
member of the Legislature of Kansas, elected in
1855, and now present in the Senate Chamber
a man, sir, of intelligence, of conscience, and of
character. And what he says is confirmed by
the memorial of General Pomeroy, to which
have referred, setting forth certain facts which
transpired on that day. will read what this
gentleman says in regard to the Lawrence district:
the Lawrence district speeches made them
by leading residents of Missouri in which said that
they would carry their purpose if need be, at the point of
the bayonet and bowiek knife and voter fred
he driven from the election ground Finding they
had greater than necessary for tina: POLL
hundred were drafted from the number and sent
of under their proper officers another District after
which they still poIled from this camp over seven hun
dred votes"
General Pomeroy says that in the fourth and
seventh districts, along the Santa Fe road,
''The invaders together in armed and organ
and the night before election pitched their in the
vicinity of the polls; and having appointed their
WISE failed attend they voted without any proof of
residence In these two election districts where the CEN
sus shows one hundred voters there were poed three
hundred and fourteen votes"
In the Leavenworth district, hundreds of men
breakfasted in Missouri, voted in Kansas, and
returned on the same day to Missouri. While
the voting was going on, one of their leaders
made speech, in which he told the Platte county
boys that they must stand aside, and let the Clay
county boys vote first, because they had the fur
thest to go in returning to their homes and the
Platte county boys of Missouri stood aside, and
allowed the Clay county boys of Missouri to vote
first and go home
This memorial declares that
Hundreds of came together in the sixteenth dis
trc crossing the river from Missouri the day before cleo
made the fercest threats gainst the lives the judges
and during the night called several times house of
in the Of his wife that rope had been prepared
TO hang him and although not prepared say
served produce his resignation and give these invaders
in the substitution control ofhe pos and the morning
Of the election steamboat brought from the town of
WestoH Missouri to Leavenworth an accession TO their
number of several hundred who returned IN the
same boat after deposting their votes There
nine hundred and fifty polled, besides ON hum
dred 10 hundred and fifty actual residents who were
deferred discouraged from voting while the census
returns show but three hundred and eighty live votes III
the district month before Not less than six hundred
here given by these nonresdents of the Ter
ritory who voted without being sworn TO their quail
fcatons, and Immediately after the election, returned
back Missouri, of them being the ncumbents of
important public Offices there
will now, sir, quote what General PomerOy
says of the election in the eighteenth district and
L ask the attention of the Senator from Missouri
to this statement:
"In the eighteenth election district WI the popua-
ton was sparse and great amount of foreign votes
needed overpower it, nj, from Missouri
from sixty one hundred passed in with a train of
wagons arms and ammu making their camp the
before the election near Mooresown the place of
n rel Y q
ing Immediately TO Missouri after their work done.
their leader and CAPTAIN beins citizen of
Missouri but late the presiding officer of the Senate of
the United States, and who had boie and revolver
beted around him. apparently ready to shed the blood of
any who refused to be ensaved All these facts
are prepared TO establish if necessary by proof that
would be considered competent in a court ofjustce"
General Pomeroy expresses the opinion,
That less than three thousand given by
these armed aders, who organized in bands with
officers and arms, and tents, and provisions, and NUM-
lions of war, though they marching upon foreign
foe, instead of their unoft ndng foow-citizens.
Upon the principal road leading Territory and
passing several important polls, they numbered less
less than six hundred They arrived their several
destinations the night before the election, and, having
pitched their camps and placed their sen,res waited for
the coming day. Baggage-wagons there with arms
and ammunition enough for protracied fight among
with drums beating and flags flying and their leaders
were OF the most prominent and conspicuous of their
State"
How very considerate it was, Mr. President in
their baggage-wagons, and cannons and rifles,
and drums, and flying flags, to lead the men of
Western Missouri over into the forests and prairies
of Kansas to protect the ballot-boxes from those
dangerous men, the armed colonists of New Eng
land
Sir, the gentleman from Connecticut wishes to
know why the seats of the Legislators elected by
the Missourians were not contested. l will tell
him: Mr. Phillips, young lawyer of Leaven-
worth m n6i lot
have the seat of the member from the sixteenth
district contested-and what was the result 7
He was taken over into Missouri and lynched,
because he dared, simply on patriotic grounds,
to dispute the right of the member to his seat,
into which he had been voted by these armed
men from Missouri
Sir, the whole power and patronage of this
Government, from the time when the Kansas and
Nebraska act went into operation to this hour
has been given to crush out the freemen of Kan
sas, and to plant the institution of Slavery upon
that virgin soil. Read the papers which support
the Administration in that Territory, and what
do we find? The Squatter Sovereign says:
"We hope the Thirty fourth Congress will be the last
men coming into kansas will be prenarsd 70 800 -
sas IN the Southern Repubc.n
The paper which made that declaration receives
the patronage and support of this law-abiding,
hberty-loving, Union-saving Administration,
"hiSh VIC oeudlOT ToHi connecticut IS always
the most prompt, the frst-and about the only
Senator here to support. Laughter
Sir, have before me an extract from another
OF those Union-loving, abiding organs of the
Administration in Kansas, which supports the
law-and-order party there, of which we read SO
much in the correspondence before u.s. The
h,c6dpoo fioneer-a paper sustained by the
friends of this Administration-gives us the fol-
lowing fine specimen of its regard for law and
order:
The South must be up and doing; Kansas must and
shall De slave State. Mark what we say, Southern