White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1857-11-05

I
didatss of the Township.
Influenced by these considerations, and i'm
pressed with the grave responsibility resting up
on Us in regard TO the fairness Of the election
and its freedom from all fraud susceptible of de
lection and prevention within the scope Of oul
duties, we deem it essential to truth and justice
that We should ascertain every fact calculated
to refute or confirm the conclusions derived
from the face Of the papers Accordingly We
went to the precinc: 4 0xss.s (Which is vii
lage with SIX houses, including stores, and with.
out tavern,) and aseertained from the citizens
of that vicinity, and especially those of the hand
some adjacent village Of New Santa Fe, in Mis-
sosri, (ssparated only by a street. and contain
ing about twenty houses,) that altogether not
more than one-tenth the number Of persons rep
resented TO have voted, were present on the two
days Of the election, much the smaller number,
not exceeding thirty or forty, being present on
the last day, when more than fifteen hundred
votes are represented as having been given.
The people Of Oxford, as well as-those of the
neighboring village Of Santa Fe, we're astOund-
ed at the magnitude Of the retur9i and all per-
sons Of all parties, in both places, treated the
whole affair with derision or indignation, not
having heard the alleged result until several
days after il had occurred.
In the sourse Of our journey 70 and from o.
ford, we passed over much the larger part of the
County of johnson, and we became thoroughly
satisfied that there is no population in the whole
County from which more than one-third the
vote of that single precinct could have been Civ
en-. We learned that some very few persons,
having claims on the Reserve in Johnson Coun-
ty, and claiming a residence therein, though
generally absent, had voted at some Of the pre-
cincts in that County; but we reconyinced that
but very inconsidersble number, not reaching,
we believe, one hundred Of MissOurians, or 9TH
ers, having no legal right to Vote, did claim or
attempt to exercise that right anywhere within
that County. The people Of Missouri cannot be
justly charged with any inAer1erenee in the late
election, nor are they in any degree complicated
with the evidently observation-disclosures, made from
the precinct of Oxford. These returns, beyond
all doubt, are simulated and fictitious.
Under these circumstances, we do not feel
embarrassed by any technical difficulty. We
hold the returns themselves to be defective in
form and in substance, and thessfore inadmissi
bic. We go behind them and inquire into the
facts, only for the purpose of ascertaining wheth-
er by those valid objections to the mere returns,
our rejection of them will have the effect Of de-
feating the will of the people, sought to be fair
" expressed at the polls. In the event of such
consequences, we might hesitate to reject vote
upon any defect of form, however essential in
law. But in the present case, we feel ourselves
bound to adhere to the very letter eff the law,
in order to defeat gross and palpable fraud.
The consideration that our own party, by this
decision, will lose the majority in the Legisla-
tive Assembly, does not make our duty in the
premises less solemn and imperative. The cleo
tive franchise would be utterly valueless, and
free government itself, would receive deadly
blow if 80 great an outrage as this could be
shielded under the cover Of mere forms and
technicalties. We cannot consent, in any man
ner to give the sanction of our respective official
positions to such a transaction. Nor canwe feel
justified to relieve ourselves of the proper re-
sponsibility of our Offices, in case where there
is no valid return, by submitting the same to the
Legislative Assembly, and in that very act, Civ
ing the parties that might claim to be chosen by
this spurious vote, the power to decide upon their
own election.
In view Of the condition Of affairs in Kansas
for several years past, Of the efforts 90 long
made TO put in operation here revolutionary
government, and the fact that this effort was
suspended under the belief that the political
difficulties of this Territory might at length be
fairly adjusted at the polls; il that adjustment
should now be defeated, and the people deprived
of their nghtful powers under the laws Of Con-
gress, BY fictitious returns of votes never given,
it is our solemn conviction that the pacihcation
of Kansas through the exercise of the elective
franchise would become impraeticable, and that
civil war would Immediately recommends in
in this Territory, extending. We fear, to adjacent
States, and subjeeting the government OF the
Union to imminent peril.
Because, therefore, the paper under e1amina-
ton is not one of the original poll-boOks, by
law required to be returned, and from the alb
sence of the oath prescribed by the Territorial
statutes, for the judges of election, the returns
being thus clearly invalid, and as we believe,
fictitious and stimulated, we have under the cir
cumstances, no alternative but to reject the
whole return from the Oxford precinct, and to
give the certificates to those who appear to have
been elected BY virtue of the other regular re-
turns. R. ]. WALKER,
Governor Of Kansas Territory.
FRED. p. STANTON, Secretary.