The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-25
bers Of the Legislature from Leavenworth
county. j. CALHOUN.


Note by the Editors of the National Intelli.
gencer.
Leaving Mr.. Calhoun's letter to speak gen
orally for itself, it may not be improper for III
to remark on one or two of its points.
In reference to that part of the letter which
expresses Mr.. Calhoun's purpose of being gov
erned, in deciding the result of the State cleo
ton, by the testimony of the judges of the Del
aware Crossing precinct, we presume that he
means merely to await the receipt of an au
thenticated copy of the testimony of the said
judges; for the attentive reader of this journal
will recollect that each of these judges, as sd
pears from their testimony copied from the
Kansas papers, has already deposed to be for
geries the very returns which Mr.. Calhoun ad
mits to have been received and counted by hin
at Westport, In Missouri, on the 2lst of Janu.
ary-nine days after the expiration of the time
within which, under the law, as expounded in
his proclamation, these returns were required
to be made. Mr.. Garrett, one of these Judges,
having been early arrested on charge OF fraud,
testified that only thirty five or thirty, nine votes
were given at the Delaware Crossing precinct,
and thai true return thereof had been made,
which was intrusted to Mr.. John d. Hender.
son, to be conveyed to Mr.. Calhoun. This ties.
tmony led to the prompt arrest of Mr.. Hender-
son and the release of Mr.. Garrett, since which
time we have heard nothing of the latter, ex.
cept report that when he was sobpenaed be-
fore the commissioners, he could not be found.
bis two associate judges, however, (Messrs.
Grinter and Munde,) have both sworn that the
Crossing was forty three, and that this number
only were returned" by the judges of the cleo.
ton. They have also testified to the falsity OF
the pretended returns from that precinct, which
were received and counted by Mr. Calhoun at
Westport, and after wards found near bis off &c
at Lecompton, under a wood-pile, where they
were placed by his chief clerk. The testimony
of Messrs. Grinter and Mundee differs slightly
from that OF Mr.. Garrett as to the exact mum.
Der of votes, the latter having stated it at sev.
eral votes less than the former. Other evidence
indicates that Mr.. CARROTS recollection was
erroneous as to this point. The judges did not
open the bollot- box to count the votes, but be.
ing assured that they were all Democratic, {"
they rolled up the poll list, without sealing il,
put it into the ballot-box, and screwed the whole
up together. Such is their own testimony.
Another point upon which we would say a
word or two is in reference to the afidavits
which are embodied in Mr.. Calhoun's letter, and
to which he seems heretofore to have attached
undue Importance. Copies of these afidavits
first reached Us on the Sd instant, in the st Louis
Republican, to which journal they were for.
warded on the 2lst of January, the very day
upon which, according to his statement, they
were put into Mr.. Calhoun's possession. The
letter to which they were appended stated with
precision the result of the election for members
of the Kansas Legislature, as the same had
been changed by these returns from Delaware
Crossing, just then received, and the facts thus
communicated were said by the correspondent
to have been received from high authority"
But we were at once led to suspect the genuine
ness of these af6davits, and that suspicion has
not yet been removed. Of the six names rep
resented in them, only two are spelt correctly,
THAT is, In the same manner as we have seen
them in the Kansas newspspers,) and the name
OF the qualifying magistrate, as written in the
body of both certificates, is different from the
signature at the end. In these affidavits, as
above published, Mr.. Calhoun has either cor
rected himself some of the errors alluded to, or
has followed q corrected copy. AS originally
published in the ST Louis Republican, and as
subsequently published in the Kansas papers
after being exhumed from beneath the wood
pile, the said afidavits are as follows:
Territory of Kansas, County of Johnson:
Before me, Samuel Salters, personally sp-
peared Theodore F. Garrett, who, being sworn,
says that on the 18th day of January he was or
rested in Leavenworth county, under, as it was
said, warrant, and taken to Lawrence by an
armed party of ten or eleven, and, while he was
under arrest, proposition was made to him to
make a new poll-book, (by some one of the Free
State party in Lawrence, and he thinks by a
man named Ewing,) which poll book should be
made out 80 that Gen. Calhoun would receive
it, which deponent, being in durance, told him
or them he supposed would be all right.
THEODORE f. GARRETT.
Sworn and subscribed before me, this 18th
day of January, 1858.
SAMUEL NJ. SALTERs, J. p.
Territory Of Kansas, County Of LearenUorth
The undersigned, judges and clerks of the
election for State officers and members Of
the State Legislature, held at the precinct known
as Delaware Agency, on the All day Of January
A. d. 1858, do hereby certify that the returns
made by US of said election are correct and
genuine, and that any statement made by any
person as to the vote of said precinct can only
be determined as to its truth or falsity by O ref
erence to said returns, made by us as mana
gers and clerks of said election OF said precinct
5 $: s:s s i ssss::, Judges
g w. u: T FIsDahr, Clerks.
Territory of Kansas, County of johnson:
Before me, Samuel Salters, an acting justice
of the peace in and for the county and Terri.
Mundy, Theodore F. Garnett, James G. Grin
ter, William C.. Wilson, and James Findley,
who, being sworn, deposeth and saith that the
foregoing statement is trHe, to the best of their
knowledge and belief.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 18th
day of January, A. d. 1853.
SAMUEL M. SALrERs, J. z.
In these copies the names T. F. Garrett, Isaac
Mundee, and James Findlsy, are all misspelled,
I've have here spelt them CORRECTLY and one Of
the initial letters of the name of the magistrate
is omitted in each of the certificates.
But the afidavits themselves are of no con-
sequence, as they do not cortrovert anything
which had been previously stated. That pur.
porting to come from Mr.. Garrett, if genuine,
may merely allude to a proposal made to him
to prepare q correct poll-list, with which to con.
flute the fraudulent one which was sought by
those who held him in duress. The other GER
ti6cate is deficient, in not stating the number
of votes received and returned by the persons
whose names it bears, and who were never
charged with having made any other than true
returns. The charge was and still is, that the
returns were altered and falsi6ed whilst on their
way to Mr.. Calhoun, end after they had gone
out of the possession of the judges of the
election.
A correspondent of the New York Times,
writing on board the q. s. steamer San Jacin-
to, at Hong Kong, December Is, says:
regret to have to record the death, on the
18th, of James A. Gates gunner in the United
States navy, and sttached at the time of his
death IN fha Tinted Statoa chin po-ts~or,L