election was to be held on the 21st of December, The ballots cast were to be indorsed either "Constitution with Slavery," or "Constitution with no Slavery." Thus to have the privilege of voting "no Slavery," it was still made necessary to vote for the Constitution; besides which, all persons offering to vote, must, if challenged, "take an oath to support the Constitution if adopted.”

This schedule, as if with a direct view of superseding the Territorial Legislature and Congressional delegate elect, further provided that the Constitution should be in force, "after its ratification by the people" (without waiting for the approval of Congress), and that a State election should be held on the first Monday in January, 1858, for the choice of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, State Treasurer, and Members of the Legislature, and also a Member of Congress. It also provided (as if to deprive the Territorial Legislature of any power of acting) that all laws in force, not repugnant to the Constitution, shall continue until altered, amended, or repealed, by a Legislature assembled under the provisions of the Constitution; and that all officers, civil or military, under the authority of the Territory of Kansas, shall continue to hold and exercise their respective offices, until

superseded by the authority of the State, the first meeting of the State Legislature to take place upon the issue of a proclamation by the President of the Convention upon the receipt of official information that "Congress has admitted Kansas into the Union." A provision was also inserted preventing any amendment previous to the year 1864, and then only upon the concurrence of two-thirds of the members of both Houses, and "a majority of all the citizens of the State."

This proceeding, as might have been expected, produced the greatest excitement in Kansas. Governor Walker condemned it in the most decided terms. He hastened at once to Washington, but before his arrival there, the Lecompton scheme had already received the approval of the President and his Cabinet.

Meanwhile, Governor Walker was superseded, and Governor Denver, a commissioner of the land office, appointed in his stead. Secretary Stanton, acting Governor in Walker's absence, called a special session of the newly elected Territorial Legislature, in which the Free State men had a majority, and they passed an Act submitting the Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people, to be taken on the same day with the Lecompton election. At the

beginning of the year the Legislature, under the Topeka Constitution, many of whose members were also members of the Territorial Legislature, met at Topeka, their object being merely to keep up the State organization.

At the election of the 4th January, a majority of 10,226 votes was cast against the Lecompton Constitution. The result of the Lecompton State election long remained in doubt. It was understood that a little over 6,000 votes (a large part of the Free State men not voting) had been given for both sets of candidates for State officers; but, according to Calhoun's* figuring, the pro-Slavery men were chosen. It was also understood that the Free State men, of whom a large part had voted for members of the Legislature, had a decided majority in both branches of that body; but all depended upon Leavenworth County, the returns for some districts of which had been falsified on their way to Calhoun, and as he kept these returns to himself, and refused to certify to any one's election till Congress had first acted on the question by admitting Kansas into the Union, the matter long remained in doubt. It was

* John Calhoun, a violent pro-Slavery partisan, was appointed by the Administration of Mr. Buchanan to office in Kansas, and did what lay in his power to make that territory a Slave State.

generally understood that if Kansas was admitted, Calhoun would cook up the returns so as to produce a pro-Slavery State Government and Legislature.

In spite of this renewed and unequivocal indication of the repugnance of the majority of the people of Kansas to the Lecompton Constitution, the President still adhered to the policy of forcing Kansas into the Union under that Constitution. A Bill to that effect was introduced into Congress. Senator Douglas, falling back upon his doctrine of popular sovereignty, refused to support it; and though it passed the Senate, in spite of every exertion of executive power, it was rejected in the House. Some of the bolters were bought over, others were half bought over, so that finally the Bill passed, but only with a provision submitting the question of admission or not to a vote of the people of Kansas, who were also offered a large bribe in lands, to come into the Union under the Lecompton Constitution.

It was still further attempted to bribe the people of Kansas by an issue of certificates to a majority of Free State men as members elect of both branches of the Legislature; but they scornfully rejected both bribes and threats, and at the election held on the 3rd of August, 1858, by 10,000 majority trampled the Lecompton Constitution under their feet.

PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS UPON THE KANSAS TROUBLES.

Having thus given an unbroken narrative of the misfortunes inflicted upon the men of the North in their efforts to make Kansas a Free State, we shall now proceed to relate what measures had been proposed for their benefit in Congress, by the antiSlavery Senators and Representatives.

The citizens of the North, roused by the efforts of the Slave oligarchy and the Administration of Mr. Pierce to force Slavery upon Kansas, carried the elections against the Democracy in nearly all the Free States, and returned a majority of members to the House of Representatives for the Thirty-fourth Congress. This majority, however, was scarcely a working one, being composed of 117 Opposition Members to 116 Administration. The first step in organizing the House was to elect a Speaker, and the contest lasted from the 3rd of December, 1855, to the 2nd of February of the following year; Mr. Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts being finally elected by a majority of three votes over his competitor, Mr. William Aiken, of South Carolina,— the largest Slaveholder in the Southern States.