8 to see how far it warrants the conclusions of the committee touching the elections of the members of the Legislature on the 30th of March, 1855. The testimony is all we have anything to do with. The conclusions of the committee are nothing. They were not authorized to give us any of their conclusions; and I have shown yoy wh^ their conclusions are worth, taking one as a sample. To collect and report the facts was all they, had to do. Then, sir, what fact is sworn to by a single witness, upon which the election, in a single district, held on the 30th of March, could be legally set aside if we were now sitting in judg- mentupon it? The greater part of this testimony, taken vrith the view to impeach the election of 30th of March,is nothing butlong-winded stories, as pointless as they are evidently prejudiced, (founded in many instances upon bare hearsay, and (altogether establishing nothing. The statements । of most of the witnesses are all on the same line, ispeaking of an invasion, companies of men coming rover from Missouri in hundreds, in wagons, armed with guns, pistols, knives, &c., but not one of them swears that ^single man in the Territory, at la single election precinct, was prevented from voting [by the use of these arms, or any other violence. The testimony of all the witnesses sworn does mot establish the fact, that one hundred known residents of Missouri voted in the whole Territory, or that the result at a single poll would have been different if all the votes proven to be illegal be rejected in the count. There were but three or four fights throughout the Territory on the day of the election, and not one of these about voting. All this general vague rumor and statement, therefore, about an invasion from Missouri, and the election having been carried by fraud, [force, and violence, 1 shall pass over. To set aside an election upon the grounds of illegal voting, the names of the voters must be stated, and the illegality of the votes proved. There is nothing of this kind in this testimony. Nor is the bare fact of illegal voting at an election sufficient to set it aside. If this were so, there are very few of Us entitled to seats upon this floor, I suspect. To set aside an election on such grounds, it must be shown that the result would be different by a rejection of the illegal votes. I wish, however, to call the attention of the House and the country to some real, substantial Tacts collected by the committee, of much weigh- Cier import than these loose sayings of one-sided md swift witnesses. Amongst these facts of substantial character is a copy of the census taken [n February, 1855, which is to be found commencing on page 72 of the committee’s report. This census gives the name of each resident legal voter in the Territory, thirty days before the March election. It also gives the State from which the settler migrated. The committee do pot seem to have given much attention to the important facts disclosed by this official document. They have made no analysis of these facts. I nave. 1 have counted every name on the census roll, and noted the section of country from which me settler migrated, and I find that of those who tvcre registered as legal voters of the Territory I in February, a month before the election, 1,670 l were from the southern States, and only 1,018 from the entire North! There were 217 from other countries. That makes the 2,905 resident legal voters in the Territory, a month before the election. I have compiled a table setting forth the number of settlers from the North, and settlers from the South, as given in the census report, for each district in the Territory. Here it is: Settlers from Settlers from the North. the South. First district.................................... 280 88 Second district........... . ....................67 132 Third district............................ 49 37 Fourth district.................................. 24 23 Fifth district......................................129 295 Sixth district................................... 83 155 Seventh district............................ 32 21 Eighth district........................... 12 26 Ninth district................................ 27 10 Tenth district................................... 29 27 Eleventh district......................... - 28 Twelfth district............................... 50 • 49 Thirteenth district....................... 22 55 Fourteenth district................ 42 286 Fifteenth district............................... 37 206 Sixteenth district............. . ............. 125 192 Seventeenth district....................... 10 40 1,018 1,670 In the first election district, there were 280 legal voters, emigrants from the northern States-,-and 88 from the southern. That is the Lawrence district. In the second district, there were ,67 from the North, and 132 from the South. In the third district, there were 49 from the North, and 37 from the South. In the fourth district, there were 24 from the North, and 23 from the South. In the fifth district, there were 129 from the North, and 295 from the South. In the sixth, there were 83 from the North, and 155 from the South. Mr. SHERMAN. Will my friend read again ; the numbers from the fifth district? [ Mr. STEPHENS. In the fifth district, there were 129 from the North, and 295 from the South. The fifth district had an overwhelming majority of residents from the South, and that is the only district, I believe, in which the committee have taken the testimony of witnesses to prove that the Abolitionists were in a'majority on the day of election. Now, sir, from these facts — facts of record, and indisputable, I deduce an argument which, to my mind, is much more incontrovertible and irresistible than any inference the majority of the committee may draw from the vague sayings of witnesses, about a multitude of-strangers being at the polls in wagons, &c. This inference, which I draw from these facts, is, that there was a decided majority of anti-Free-Soilers in the Territory, and in a large majority of the districts, in the month of February, if there had been no immigration after that time. But the evidence is abundant and conclusive that there was a large immigration of legal voters from the South after
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