Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-18
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Sand the convention to assemble March -.
at MinneoIa. the newly established capital
ot the territory. Governor Denver. whose
tynpathies were not with the free st.l:e reo
pie. or cause. attempted to thwart the
movement by the preten:e. or claim. that
the bill had not Teen properly passed. but
the people of Kansas in those days paid
out little attention to the opinions OF fed
erai governors against any action they
had determined on. and vent ahead with
the movement. uninAuenced by Denvers op
position. The election was held March 8.
The convention assembled at Minneola
March @, adjourned to Leavenworth
March "a, reconvened at Leavenworth
March Is, framed constitution, finished
Its labors and adjourned April 3. A state
convention to nominate officers under the
constitution was held at Topeka April rs,
and the constitution was adopted and OH
GERS elected under it May IL. Be
fore this latter date, hawever, the
great contest in congress over the
admission of the state under the Lecomp-
ton constitution had come to an end by
the passage of the English DILL, which
referred that constitution back to
the r1ople of Kansas to be voted upon the
next August and provided that if the vote
should be against the constitution, dele
gates to new convention should not be
chosen until the territory had a popula'
ton equal to the ratio of a representative
in congress. or "a, $50. Thus the great
crisis had passed, and further prosecution
of the Leavenworth movement was un.
necessary and soon abandoned. 1t had
come into being suddenly as strategic
necessity in the great fight which the free
state people were waging, and when the
occasion for it had passed, it too passed
away.
The Lecompton constitution has an i'm.
mortality OF infamy. Ii was the child OF
fraud, and finally died smitten by tie
mailed hands of an indi gnant and out
ragged people. 1t is remembered just as
any other great crime against humanity
lives in the execrating remembrance OF
mankind. From first to last the move
ment was tainted with fraud. 1t began
in the old bogus Missouri elected legisia-
ture of 1855, which professed to submit
the question of calling convention to an
election to be held in October, 1856. No
free state men voted at that election. The
bogus legislature at its second session, be-
! gun in January. 1857, passed an act pro.
viding for the taking of census and
election of delegates to frame a constit.n
! ton. The delegates were to assemble IN
| Lecompton the first Monday in September,
1857. The law was cunningly framed to
exclude the spring immigration from vot.
ing, as no person could vote who arrived
later than the 18th Of March. All the pre-.
liminary proceedings were placed in the
hands of pro-slavery officials, and no pro,
vision was made for submitting the con.
stitution to vote of the people. Cover
nor Geary protested against these pro
visions, and especially demanded the sub
mission of the constitution. The leaders
refused, and salt that to submit 1t "wouis
defeat the only object of the act, which
was to secure. beyond any possibility OF
failure, the territory OF Kansas to the
south as slave state" Geary then We
toed the bill. and the legislature promptly
pa sed it over his veto. The pretended
census of voters and Of population, upon
which the superintendent OF delegates was
to lie made, was completed during the
month of April. In nineteen OF the thirty
four counties of the territory no census
whatever was taken. From every county
bordering on Missouri and from every pro-
slavery county returns were made. The
disfranchised counties were mainly occu-
pied by free state settlers. The object OF
this partial end unfair census was appar-,
ent. 1t was to put the convention beyond
a peradventure in the hands of the pro-
slavery men.
A recens w:iter On Kansas affairs has
endeavored to shoulder a portion OF the
pdium Of this Infamous census upon the
free state part". After stating that "ap-
portionment If delegates depended on
population, but nobody could cote whose
name did not appear on the registry lists;
and that in only sixteen Of the thlrty-four
organized counties was there any reglstra-
ton" he adds, flor this condition of
things the pro-slavery party was not
wholly responsible Free state men per-
picked the enumeration by embarrass-
ments of omission and commission. and
were not i'll pleased at the starved and
skeleton returns" It is difficult to see
why the free state men should be held re-
sponsibie for something with which they
had absolutely nothing to do. The act call
ing the convention entrusted the taking OF
the census to the sheriffs of the various
; counties and the returns were to be made to
the probate judges for inspection and re-
vision and the corrected lists returned to the
, governor, who was to make the apportion.
! ment of the delegates. Every sheriff and
PROBATE Judge as well as every other coun-
" officer in the territory was an appointee
, Of the bogus Legislature. and pro-slavery
} man. There were no free state officers.
: There had been no election of county off.
GERS by the people and would be uone until
long after the delegates to the constitu-
tional convention had been chosen. Nc
free state man in the territory had any au'
thority or legal power to add single name
. to the census or the registry. How they
could "perplex an enumeration by ,m'
, barrassments of commission and omis-
SION when there WAS absolute
~ nothing for them either to commit
or to omit, passes comprehension The
. starved and skeleton" returns were nc
pal tlcular pleasure to them except as they
| foreboded, or ought to have foreboded, the
{ downfall of the infamous plot to make
: Kansas slave state Secretary Stanton
afterward avowed that had he known al
t the time the full extent of the scoundr lisn
, of that census and registry he would have
, refused to make an apportionment under
: it. and suffered the whole movement t.
c,1 III ba tvoa ~ 70 EpnwrnO na