dreds of men came together, as in the other cases, crossing the river from Missouri the day before election and encamping together, armed and provisioned, made the fiercest threats against the lives of the judges, and during the night called several times at the house of one of them for the purpose of intimidating him, declaring, in the presence of his wife, that a rope had been prepared to hang him, and, although we are not prepared to say that these threats would have been carried out, yet they served to produce his resignation, and give these invaders, in the substitution, control of the polls; and on the morning of the election a steamboat brought from the town of Weston, Missouri, to Leavenworth, an accession to their numbers of several hundred more, who returned in the same boat after depositing their votes. There were over nine hundred and fifty votes polled, besides from one hundred to one hundred and fifty actual residents who were deterred or discouraged from voting, while the census returns show but three hundred and eighty-five votes in the district a month before. Not less than six hundred votes were here given by these non-residents of the Territory, who voted without being sworn as to their qualifications, and immediately after the election returned back to Missouri; some of them being the incumbents of important public offices there. Indeed, so well was the character of this foreign vote understood that the judges struck out of the prescribed form of return the words "by lawful resident voters.

We might continue the list of these sickening details until the blood of every freeman would boil with indignation; but it is useless. One more instance alone we will refer to. In the eighteenth election district, where the population was sparse, and no great amount of foreign votes was needed to overpower it, a detachment from Missouri, from sixty to one hundred, passed in with a train of wagons, arms and ammunition, making their camp the night before the election near Moorestown, the place of the polls, without even a pretext of residence, and returning immediately to Missouri after their work was done, their leader and captain being a distinguished citizen of Missouri, but late the presiding officer of the Senate of the United States, and who had bowie knife and revolver belted around him, apparently ready to shed the blood of any man who refused to be enslaved. All these facts we are prepared to establish, if necessary, by proof that would be considered competent in a court of justice.

From a careful examination of the returns we are satisfied that over three thousand votes were thus cast by the citizens and residents of the States, and that a very large portion of the residents were deterred or discouraged from going to the polls. If this condition of things is allowed to prevail, we are reduced to the state of a vassal province, and are governed by the State of Missouri.

It would be mere affectation in us to attempt to disguise the fact that the question of making Kansas a free or slaves States is at the bottom of this movem nt, and that the men who thus invade our soil and rob us of our liberties are from the pro-slavery men of Missouri, who are unwilling to submit the question to the people of the Territory, and abide the compact between the north and south, which the Kansas-Nebraska bill contains. That compact we want carried out, and by that test we want the question settled if it can be; but there

are few things that we would not prefer to the domination of irresponsible invaders from Missouri. That enactment is not only a law which States and individuals are bound to obey, but it is a compact between the north and the south, a solemn covenant between the sovereign States of our Union, which none can violate without becoming recreant to the principles of honor and justice, without the betrayal of confidence reposed, without such breaking of plighted faith as in an individual would load him to the earth with scorn and contempt, and drive him from the society of honest men. That bill which northern statesmen, backed with northern votes, had obtained for southern rights, is made by men who invade our soil the very instrument for depriving us of our dearest privileges, and stabbing to the heart those who magnanimously gave it into their hands for other ends.

That bill is made to mean popular sovereignty for them, serfdom for us. The doctrine of self-government is to be trampled under foot here, of all other places in the world, on the very spot which had been hallowed and consecrated to its most signal vindication. The altars which had been reared to it on this chosen ground, and around which at least the democracy of the whole Union had sworn allegiance, and to which we had come as pilgrim worshippers in the wilderness, are to be ruthlessly demolished. The compact is to be basely broken, and the ballot of the freeman (in effect) torn from our hands, almost before the ink of the covenant is dry. Not only, too, is the principle of popular sovereignty to be blotted out, but more than this, even the object of the contest is to disappear. The question of negro slavery is to sink into insignificance, and the great portentous issue is to loom up in its stead, whether or not we shall be the slaves, and fanatics who disgrace the honorable and chivalric men of the south shall be our masters to rule us at their pleasure.

With a feeble and scattered community just struggling into existence, without organization and almost without shelter, we are powerless to resist an old, strong, and populous State, full of men and arms and resources, and we therefore appeal to you, and through you to the people of the States. Remedy here we have none.

Our executive has with manly determination and persistent fidelity stood by his people, and endeavored to carry out the principles of popular sovereignty, and secure us the privilege of managing our own affairs and governing ourselves, until his reputation has been assailed and his life openly threatened with a bitterness almost unparalleled; and, although as chief magistrate he is all we could desire, and has fearlessly pursued the path of duty amid a storm of menace and detraction, under which many men would have quailed, yet he is powerless like ourselves.

We make now this last appeal, not to the north, not to the south, not to any political party, but to the representatives of the whole Union. We beg that no men will sport with our fearful condition, by endeavoring to make political capital, or build up party at the expense of our civil and physical existence. We want the men of the north and the men of the south to protect us. Through yourselves, their representatives, we appeal to their honor, to their justice, to their patriotism, to their sympathies, not for favors but for rightsnot for trivial rights, but for the dearest rights guarantied to us by

the Declaration of Independence, by the Constitution of the Union, by the law of our organization, by the solemn compact of the States, and which you pledged to us as the condition of our coming here,

Communities are not to blame for the conduct of their fanatics unless they sanction them. We cannot believe that the States of the South will sanction the outrages that have been perpetrated upon us, or will allow them to be continued. And, although we might reason the matter as a question of policy, and show that it is contrary to the laws of nature and socie y, and opposed to all human experience, that good can come from such an evil, (although we might prove that it is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind," and that the reaction will be fearful,) yet we feel that this is unnecessary, that it is enough to appeal to their honor and their sense of justice, and to rely upon their plighted faith.

Inside our bounds we shall have no serious troubles. Northern and southern men mingle together in harmony and good feeling, and in mutual dependence and assistance in the hardships and privations of a pioneer life. As we learn to understand each other, friendships are engendered and prejudices melt away, so that we shall be able to meet all questions that may arise in a spirit of justice and kindly feeling, which will secure the rights of all, and cheerful acquiescence in the decision of the majority. From foreign oppression, however, we ask for relief of that power which passed the Kansas bill, and pledged to us its benefits if we would come here. We have a right to ask, and do ask, its enforcement. It remains for your honorable bodies to decide whether you will keep the compact between you and us which exists by that bill and our emigration, whether you will vindicate the sacred doctrines of the government, or whether you will leave us in a state of vassalage and oppression. We cannot and do not doubt that you will in some way give us justice and protection.

To Mr. Sherman:

G. P. LOWREY, recalled.

I was present at Lawrence, in the Territory of Kansas, on the 9th of October, 1855, at an election for delegates to a constitutional convention and delegate to Congress. The election for constitutional delegates and congressional delegate were held on the same day and at the same place, but under different proclamations and with different ballot-boxes. The election was conducted peaceably and quietly that day. I voted. The number of votes cast for delegate to Congress was 557, and about the same number for constitutional delegates. The returns of these elections were delivered to the executive commit tee, of which James H. Lane was chairman, and J. M. Goodin was secretary. Some time last winter I called upon Mr. Lane, at the request of Governor Reeder, for the poll-books and returns of his eleotion as delegate to Congress, in order to use them in his contest for that seat. I received from Mr. Lane a package of election papers, and sent them to Governor Reeder. They are the same papers that 1 produced before this committee in New York city. I do not think the returns of the Lawrence election were among the papers when I first received them, though I did not examine them closely. I know they are not among them now. But I remember distinctly the number of

votes cast, and there were 557 for Reeder, and, I think, one or two for Whitfield.

The returns of the election for members to the constitutional convention were also placed in charge of the executive committee, and were generally in the charge of the secretary, Mr. Goodin. At the time the committee were in Kansas, at least until I left, they were at Leavenworth. Goodin was down on the Neosha, laying out a town, some 125 miles from Lawrence. G. P. LOWREY.

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., July 11, 1856.

Dr. J. N. O. P. WOOD called and affirmed.

To Mr. King:

I came into the Territory first about the 1st of April, 1854. I located permanently in Lawrence about the 7th of October, 1854. I resided there until some time the last of March or the first of April last, and then I went to Lecompton. About the time I came there, there was considerable difficulty between what was called the Lawrence Association, of which Dr. Robinson was president, and the settlers that were not members of this association. The members of the association held a meeting two or three evenings after I got there, and elected a judge, &c., Mr. Grover, marshal, and organized a companyI think they called it the "Shot-gun Battalion"-for the purpose of preventing persons that did not belong to their association from settling about the place, and taking timber and stone from the claims of those who did live there. They said there was no law in the Territory; that the organic act was unconstitutional, made so by the repeal of the Missouri compromise; and that they intended to form an association, and make and enforce their own laws, irrespective of the laws of Congress, until there should be a change in Congress, by which the Missouri compromise could be restored, and the organic act set aside. There was no open opposition to the execution of the law until Governor Reeder appointed justices of the peace, and one or two members of the association were arrested. They refused to recognize the power of the justice of the peace, and refused to attend as witnesses, and would only attend their own provisional court, as they called it. When the legislature was about to be elected, they held a meeting, and brought out their candidates. After the legislature was elected, and before they met, there were several meetings held in Lawrence, and, at those meetings, they passed resolutions declaring they would submit to no laws passed by that legislature. This was what was called the Lawrence Association, different from the town association. It was composed of men sent out under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Society, and Dr. Robinson was at the head of the association. Many belonging to this association lived in different parts of the Territory. They were allowed to vote at the meetings of the association, which I sometimes attended; and those who were not enrolled as members of the association were not allowed to vote or debate at their meetings. Some of them lived at Osawotomie, Topeka, Manhattan, and other places in the Territory. They resolved not to obey the laws that would be passed by the legislature, and only obey their own provisional laws until they could form a provisional government for the Territory. The first general meeting, while the legislature was in session, was

held in July or August, 1855. Before that time, their meetings had been of the association, but this was the first general meeting. That was the first meeting at which I recollect hearing Colonel Lane take ground in opposition to the laws that the legislature then in session should pass All the public speakers that I heard there said they did not intend to obey the laws that would be passed, but intended to form a provisional government for themselves.

After the legislature adjourned, the first meeting at which I heard any declarations with regard to the resistance of the laws was held at Blanton's bridge. Colonel Lane, Mr. Emery, and Mr. John Hutchinson addressed the meeting, urging the people to resist the laws, let the consequences be what they might. In private conversation with those men, they always expressed their determination to resist the laws, and said the officers and posse should not enforce the laws. They said they had a new code of laws called Sharpe's Revised Statutes, and they were going to use them in preference to any others. It was a common remark that they would use Sharpe's Revised Statutes in preference to any others.

I think the first box of rifles came there marked Revised Statutes. I think after Mr. Dietzler came back, he said he brought the rifles with him. When they were brought to Lawrence, they wanted to put them in my warehouse. They were lying at my door, and I inquired what they were, and Mr. Saulter, who was keeping the warehouse for me, said they were emigrant aid guns. I objected to their being put in my warehouse, and they were taken and put in Mr. Simpson's office. I told them I would not be the first to harbor guns brought there for revolution. I often expostulated with Lane, Robinson, and others, both publicly and privately, as to their course, and addressed the meeting at Blanton's bridge in opposition to that course. They said they would resist the laws regardless of consequences.

The next public meeting I recollect of was the Big Spring convention. At that convention I had but little conversation, except with Governor Reeder and Judge Johnson. Prior to the meeting, several days, Governor Reeder came up to our place. I heard that he was urging the people to resist the laws, and do so by setting a different day for the election of delegate to Congress on which he should be voted for. I called on him at his room, and asked him if he had recommended that course, and he said that he had intended to have returned to Pennsylvania, but upon reflection he had concluded that if they would take that course at the convention, he would be a candidate for Congress, and had returned from Kansas City, where he had taken his trunks and baggage. He said he had understood, since he came there, that Lane, Roberts, and others would be candidates before the convention; but if they would withdraw, and the course he had indicated was taken, he would be a candidate for Congress. He said it would give him an opportunity to bring the matter before Congress, and, with the majority they had then in Congress against the Democratic party, he thought he could succeed in ousting General Whitfield if elected. A meeting was held in Lawrence, and it was agreed upon that a different day should be fixed upon for the election, and the candidates who were there-Robinson, Lane, and some others-agreed to withdraw in favor of Governor Reeder. This was four or Swedewe