PAPERS PURPORTING TO BE THE MEMORIAL OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF KANSAS, AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF KANSAS. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: This memorial of the undersigned senators and representatives in the General Assembly of the State of Kansas, now in session, respectfully showeth : That, upon the organization of Kansas as a Territory, persons from all parts of the United States, wishing to make for themselves homes, and to aid in moulding the institutions of a new State, having confidence in the justice and fidelity of the general government, and believing that the rights guarantied by the constitution and the organizing act would be secured to them, subjected themselves to the hardships of a pioneer life, and assumed the responsibility of establishing the institutions of an enlightened people in a hitherto rude and uncultivated land. They came as law-abiding citizens, asking for nothing but what belonged to American citizens, and, as men proud of their attachment to the constitution, were willing to accept the government extended to them, until the population should justify the formation of a new State, in which formation they were willing to be governed by the will of the majority. On the twenty-ninth day of November, 1854, the day which had been selected on which to elect a delegate to represent the people of the Territory in the Congress of the United States, several hundred persons from the adjacent State of Missouri came into the Territory and voted for such delegate. The man who was elected by their illegal votes was not the choice of the resident citizens of the Territory, and could not represent their will. They, however, not believing that such open and defiant aggression would be sanctioned by a government to which they should look for protection, quietly submitted, trusting to that government for redress. On the thirtieth day of March, 1855, when the election of members of the first Territorial legislature was to be held, thousands of armed men from Missouri invaded the Territory and voted. Every district was controlled by their votes, except the Pawnee representative dis
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=