The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-08-15

nc lsdteSt AaEsdS OutIuSee
For the last week or ten days the Kansas
shrieking press have abounded in telegraph
/ dispatches manufactured at Lawrence, trum-
peting a new outrage perpetrated on the
rights of the people, by the apportionment
that has just been made under the territorial
authority of members Of the territorial le-
gslature to be elected in October. Nineteen
counties, say these dispatches, are allowed
but three representatives, while fourteen
other counties have thirty-six. The duty of
making this apportionment, say the papers,
was assigned to Gov. Walker, but in case of
his failure, it devOlved on the speaker Of the
house and President Of the council of the
last legislature. Gov. W., unwilling 20 ap-
| pear as a party in the premeditated fraud,
declined to make the apportionment, SO the
duty passed into the hands OF the border
ruffians, &c.
We have become so much accustomed to
0ndIng these telegraph dispatches of Kansas
turn out lying stories, that we have taken it
for granted, when the facts came to hand,
this last outrage would prove to be Of the
same stamp with its predecessors. Well, it
turns out that we were not mistaken. il
appears, so far from Gov. Walker refusing to
make this apportionment, the time limited
by the act, in which he was to make it, had
expired before the law, or any knowledge of
it's existence, could officially come to him.
In the next place, it turns out, that the four
teen counties to which the thirty-six repre-
sentatives are given, include about all the
counties in which the black republicans have
any strengthen short, four-fiftbs of the
population Of the whole territory, while the
nineteen counties are SO sparsely settled,
that they have about all the representatives
they are entitled to.
II is we'll known that all the heavy settle.
ments in Kansas are along the Missouri and
Kansas river, and although the whole terri.
tory is parcelled out into counties, those on
the rivers, and consequently near the Mis-
souri, border, contain nearly all the popula-
ton. That those counties, therefore, into
which voters from Missouri can be most
easily imported, have the largest representa-
ton, is unavoidable, it was equally unavoid-
able, that the thinly settled, back counties,
where Lane and his followers could stuff the
ballot boxes at pleasure, should have few re-
representatives.. The outcry against the ap-
portionment, therefore, appears to arise not
from its unfairness legally, but because the
" border ruffians" have better chance to
cheat than the black republicans by import
ing votes or stufIing ballot boxes.
That Lane and his followers are indignant
on this account, shows plainly enough, what
few ever doubted, that they are as expert
and ready to import votes and stuff ballot
boxes as the border ruffians" ever were.
Indeed we have confirmatory evidence of
this in letter now before us from friend
who writes us from Lawrence, under date of
Aug. G, in reference TO the late vote on the
Topeka Constitution. He says
"We had an election here last Monday on
the Topeka Constitution, of which you have !
doubtless heard, and how unanimous the
vote was. But mold a little. This unanimi-
ty is all humbug, and it will be proved at
the regular territorial election in October.
None but those in favor of the Topeka Con-
stituti0n voted at all. They claim that they
polled 1000 to 10, 600 votes in the terrific
~, but you can set it down at less than hal:
of that, for you must allow at least half
for Surfing, For instance, in this place they
claim 700 votes for the constitution, while it 4
is notorious from a careful count not 300
voted on that day, and in October they will 4
not get zoo votes. There is cursed set Of
English and Scotch reporters here, WHO cor /
respond with the \. Y and Chicago IriJuTe T.
and other eastern papers who always lie in !
preference when truth would do as well. !
You must not put the leas. reliance in what ,
these fellows say. They are in the pay of !
the Emigrant Aid Society and eastern agi /
tators, and their whole object is to keep up .
excitement.
"But Gov. Walker takes them all down. ,
When he came here with the troops, you /
should have seen them come down. These /
rufIians, that talked so enor-
mously but the day before about setting all .
creation at defiance, fawned around him ike /
whipped spaniels. Rely upon it, they are
the smoothest spoken, oiliest, most treacher-
Gus, cnnsummate set of rascals in the coun-
try. know them"