5G KANSAS. bers of persons were procured to enter the Territory, with exaggerated boasts of their popular prowess, preparatory to the first election. The people of Missouri, excited and aroused by the menacing throngs of these emigrants as they passed through that State on their way to Kansas, lying upon its western border, were stimulated to active counter-exertions, and threw bodies of emigrants into the new Territory to counteract the movements of the Emigrant Aid Societies. The first election occurred in November, 1854, for a Territorial delegate to Congress, and the free-State party were defeated. Those who had set in motion this unusual and unjustifiable interference from abroad with the local affairs of Kansas, then raised an outcry against the Missourians for apparently fairly beating them at their own game. They immediately renewed the struggle for the ensuing legislative elections, which occurred in March, 1855. They charge that they were beaten by frauds, and by the votes of non-residents. But it is worthy of note, that no attempts wer& made to prove the truth of these general charges. Notwithstanding Governor Reeder’s proclamation, prescribing the time, place, and mode of election, had required an oath by the judges of election to permit no person to vote who was not a qualified voter and an actual resident of the Territory, and to make a true and faithful return of the votes to the governor ; and notwithstanding it also expressly provided that if there should occur any fraudulent voting, or voting by non-residents, the persons so charging should make a sworn statement of the facts to the governor, and that the irregularities should be corrected; yet the public records show that neither the judges of election, nor any other person or persons in the Territory, ever did make such allegations or returns, and that there was never any proof shown, or attempted to be shown, that any such irregularities had an existence. Governor Reeder himself, it will be remembered, certified the legality of the election. But the defeated party renewed their efforts, still relying chiefly upon the operations of the organized Emigrant Aid Societies of New England ; and they again made loud boasts of the large numbers of emigrants they were pouring into the Territory, preparatory to the spring elections. This, in turn, naturally excited renewed counterexertions on the part of Missouri and the southern States.' The result • was, that in the legislative elections in March, the free-State party were again defeated. The returns having been made to Gov. Reeder, that officer certified the legality of election of an overwhelming majority of the members of both houses of the legislature; and subsequently, both before and after that body met and organized, he again and again recognised it as a, properly-constituted legislature. There were a few districts in which he did object to the returns, on the score of illegal voting, and in these instances he ordered new elections. But they were so few, that had all those members been excluded from seats, it would not have prevented the legal and efficient organization of the legislature. The records show that there •was no pretence set up of illegal voting in the election of eleven councilmen out of thirteen, and of seventeen representatives out of twenty- six. At the special elections, ordered by the governor, to fill vacancies where illegal voting was alleged, the same persons were again
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