The Kanzas news., 1857-10-24

recorded for each one of TWENTY-FIVE c.nd;
dates, and in more than hundred cases
for twenty-five, and that by vioa voce yoto
it was physical impossibility that tbs
number of votes pretended to have haon
taken on the second day, being more than
fifteen hundred, with the name of the yotar
written, and each of twenty-five candidatss
properly designated, could have been taken
and recorded within the time prescribed
by law.
4th. 1t is an extraordinary fact, tendipo
to throw distrust upon the whole proceed
ing, that of sixteen hundred and twenty
eight votes, only one is given to the dele
gate elect to Congress and only one hun
dred and twenty-four are recorded as hay
ing been cast for the local candidates of the
township.
Influenced by these considerations. and
impressed with the grave responsibility
resting upon US in regard to the fairness Of
the election, and its freedom from all fraud
susceptible of detection and prevention
within the scope of our duties, we deemed
it essential to truth and justice that We
should ascertain every fact calculated to re-
fute or confirm the conclusions derived from
the face of the papers. Accordingly We
went to the precinct of Oxford, (which is
q village with six houses, including stores.
and without tavern, and ascertained from
the citizens of that vicinity, and especially
those of the handsome adjacent village of
New Santa Fe in Missouri, (separated only
by a street and containing twenty houses
that altogether not more than one-tenth the
number of persons represented TO have vo-
ted were present on the two DAYS of the
election, much the smaller number, not ex-
ceeding 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, Were
astounded at the magnitude of the return;
and all persons of all parties, In both places,
treated the whole affair with derision or in
dignati0n, not having heard the alleged re-
suit until several days after it had occurred
In the course of our journey to and from
| Oxford, 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 given. We learn'd
that some very few person, having cabins
on the Reserve in johnson County, and
claiming residence therein, though gen
orally absent, had voted at some of the pre-
cincts in that county; but we are convinced
that but very inconsiderable number, not
reaching, we believe, one hundred of Mis-
sourians or other persons having no admit
ted right TO vote, did claim or attempt TO ex-
ercise that right, anywhere within that
county. The people of Missouri, cannot
be justly charged with any interference in
the late election, nor are they in any degree
complicated with the evidently fraudulent
returns, made from the precinct of Oxford.
These returns, beyond all doubt, are stimu-
lated and fictitious.
| Under these circumstances, we do not
feel embarrassed by any technical difficulty,
as to our right to 90 behind the returns.
We hold the returns themselves to be de-
fective in form and in substance, and there
fore inadmissible. We go behind them and
inquire into the facts, only for the purpose
of ascertaining whether by these valid OBJ
Ijections to the mere returns, our rejection
of them viii have the effect of defeating the
viii of the people, sought to be fairly ex-
pressed at the polls In the event of such
consequences, we might hesitate to reject
vote upon any defect of form, however es-
sential in law. But In the present case, We
letter of the law, in order to defeat a gross
and palpable fraud. The consideration that
our own party, by this decision, will lose
the majority in the Legislative Assembly,
does not make our duty in the premises
less solemn and imperative. The elective
franchise would be utterly valueless, and
free government itself would receive a dead
ly blow, if SO great an outrage as this could
ha ch dad r
and technicalities. We cannot consent in
any manner to give the sanction of our re-
spective official positions to such transac
ton. Nor can we feel justified to relieve
ourselves of the proper responsibility of our
offices IN a case where there is no valid re-
turn, by submitting the question to the Le-
gisiative Assembly, and, in that very act
giving 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 Kan
zas for several years past, of the efforts 50
long made to put in operation here revou-
tionary government, and of the fact that
this effort was suspended under the belief
that the political difficulties of this Terrific
ry might at length be fairly adjusted at the
polls; if that adjustment should now be de-
feated, and the people deprived of their
rightful power under the laws of Congress,
by fictitious returns of votes never given,
it is our solemn conviction that the pacifca
ton of Kanzas through the exaEcise of the
lelective franchise would become imprachca-
bic, and that civil war would immediately
recommended in this Territory, extending,
we fear, to adjacent States, and subjectins
the government of the Union in imminent
Iperil.
Because, therefore, the paper now under
examination is not one of the original poll
books. by law required to be returned, and
from the absence of the oath prescribed By