I r 4 KANSAS. trict, which was entitled to hut one representative. Tn the first district, about nine hundred armed men having come from Missouri on the day previous, with two pieces of artillery, and organized as if for war, on the morning of the election surrounded the polls, and held possession of the ballot-boxes until late in the afternoon, when, after completing their voting, they returned to Missouri. Some of them, when asked by the judges of election if they resided in the Territory, replied that they resided in the State of Missouri, that they had come to vote, and that they would vote or die in the attempt. In this district the judges of the election erased the word “legal” in their returns, and made them out so informal that they did not certify that any legal votes had been polled. Because of this informality in the returns, and the protest of the inhabitants in said district, the election was set aside by the governor, a vacancy declared, and a new election ordered. In the second and third districts the judges of election were driven from the polls, and fled to escape death. The ballot-boxes were destroyed, the legal voters were overpowered and driven from the polls, and mob violence prevailed throughout. Similar attacks upon the people and the ballot-boxes were everywhere made. This invasion was led by some of the most distinguished men in Missouri, among whom was the late president of the United States Senate. This election, upon which rested the liberty and only protection of the people, was a fraud and a forcible disfranchisement of them. On the twenty-second day of May following, pursuant to a proclamation of the governor, new elections were held in six districts, and several hundred persons came from Missouri and voted in the twelfth precinct. In the other precincts, where they were not, there was no interference, and the legal voters, for the first time, were allowed the free exercise of their rights. On the 2d day of July, following, the first Territorial legislature of Kansas assembled in Pawnee, pursuant to the proclamation of the governor, when the seats of the members elected at the second election, except those in the twelfth precinct, were contested. On the third day of the session, every member whose seat was contested, although he had a certificate of election from the governor, was ousted. All were ejected without an investigation of their claims, which was asked as a right, but was denied them. These members were expelled on the ground that the governor had no right to declare a vacancy and order a new election; but your memorialists represent that such right is given to him in the act organizing the Territory, and could not be lawfully rescinded by the legislature ; therefore, by such violation of the principles of the act, eight legally elected members were rejected, and their places supplied by men who had no certificates of election from the governor, nor proper credentials from any source. On the third day of the session, the legislature located the temporary seat of government at the Shawnee Mission, and, as this power was not given to the legislature by the organic act, it being given to the governor alone, your memorialists believe all acts enacted at said
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