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Mr. McCrea, which resulted in the latter's shooting the former in self-defense. As one of these was pro and the other anti-slavery, it awakened party excitement and furnished grounds for further acts of violence. McCrea was pursued, fired upon and wounded-was taken to the fort prisoner, where he was retained a long time-finally escaped and went to Texas. At a meeting assembled on the evening following this homicide, a committee was appointed to wait upon a young attorney, William Phillips, Esq., to notify him to leave the Territory. They accused him of being accessory to the murder of Clark, and of having perjured himself in swearing to a protest against the election held there on the 30th ultimo.

The same crowd assembled on the following Thursday, which was but an adjourned meeting of the former. The committee appointed to wait upon Mr. Phillips reported that he had left agreeable to the notice given, and was discharged. A vigilance committee of thirty members was then appointed "to watch and observe all persons producing disturbances to the quiet of our citizens," with authority to expel the same from the Territory. This meeting" was eloquently addressed" by the Chief Justice of the Territory.

The Vigilance Committee, on learning in the afternoon that Mr. Phillips was in town, proceeded immediately to his house. On his declaring to them that he would not leave the Territory, they took him to Weston, shaved one side of his head, tarred and feathered him, rode him on a rail through the streets, and finally had him sold at auction by a negro.

At a meeting held in Leavenworth a few days afterwards, of which a prominent member of the Legislature elect was president, the following resolutions were adopted:

"1st. That we heartily endorse the action of the committee of citizens, that shaved, tarred and feathered, and rode on a rail and had sold by a negro, William Phillips, the moral perjurer.

"2d. That we return our thanks to the committee for faithfully performing the trust enjoined upon them by the pro-slavery party.

"3d. That the committee be now discharged.

"4th. That we severely condemn those pretended proslavery men who, from mercenary motives, are now calling upon the pro-slavery party to submit without further action.

"5th. That in order to secure peace and harmony to the community we now solemnly declare that the pro-slavery party stand firmly by and carry out the resolutions reported by the committee appointed for that purpose on the 'memorable 30th."

The wonderful difference between the two conflicting elements in the Territory at that time is remarkable. The pro-slavery men, impetuous, aggressive and overbearing, sought by all possible means to embroil the opposite party into difficulties. The free state men, cool, prudent and sagacious, "as harmless as doves and as wise as serpents," acted entirely upon the defensive, and avoided, as much as possible, all troubles. The former were blustering and mercenary, the latter quiet and unobtrusive. The former claimed as their right the very thing which had been referred to the decision of the ballot-box; the latter only claimed the right which their Government guaranteed them of assisting to give shape to that decision. The one was wild with excitement, blinded by prejudice, rough and profane, supported by the adjoining State, strong in numbers and wealth. The other quiet, intelligent, refined and devotional, were far removed from friends, liable to be crushed at any moment by the furious and threatening Ruffians of the Border. The press of one sent forth slang, vituperation, misrepresentation and inflammatory appeals, fit fuel for civil war; that of the other denounced all acts of violence, and appealed to men's better natures to abstain from engendering strife.

CHAPTER XV.

FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.

Gov. Reeder having issued a proclamation for convening the Legislature at Pawnee, started for the East. While there he visited Washington and had protracted interviews with the President, in which he set before the Executive the true state of affairs as they had transpired in the Territory and the course which he had pursued. The President seemingly sanctioning Mr. Reeder's official conduct, told him, however, that heavy pressures were being made for his removal, and that there was great personal danger attending his return to the Territory from the ill feeling of pro-slavery men on the Border. The President, thereupon, advised him to resign; as an inducement to such a step, offered him another appointment. Mr. Reeder refused to resign his position on the grounds that it would be dishonorable for him, for the sake of personal safety, to abandon the people of the Territory in their present perilous and unhappy condition. The President then proposed that Mr. Reeder should make out a detailed account of the transactions in the Territory and set forth his official conduct and views in regard to Kansas matters, and he would assume the responsibility to remove Mr. Reeder on the plea that it was necessary in order to allay public excitement in Kansas and on the Border; at the same time.

erence to contested elections, they can form no precedent for us, for the plain reason that while government is formed and complete, ours is in a forming state, and therefore incomplete.

"In regard to the right of the Governor to order a new election, the organizing object to be accomplished, the intention of Congress which pervades the bill, together with the express language of the bill, declaring that when a vacancy shall otherwise occur he shall call a new election-make it perfectly clear that he possessed the right to order a new election, and compelled him to do so. Hence the members holding certificates by virtue of that election, have a clear right to their seats in this House."

John Hutchinson, Esq., made a logical and eloquent speech of two hours' length against the majority report of the committee. Thereupon the Speaker, Dr. Stringfellow, remarked that "though the House had no objections to indulging the members in free speech, it might, perhaps, shorten their remarks in some degree if they knew that their speeches would not change a single vote."

The members to be ousted by the report of the majority offered the following protest :

"We, the undersigned members of the House of Representatives of Kansas Territory, believing the Organic Act organizing said Territory gives this House no power to oust any member from this House who has received a certificate of election from the Governor; that this House can not go behind an election called by the Governor, and consider any claims based on a prior election. We would, therefore, protest against such a proceeding, and ask this protest to be spread upon the journal of this House.

"JOHN HUTCHINGSON,
"WILLIAM JESSEE,
"AUGUSTUS WATTLES,
"E. D. TODD."

On motion the majority report of the committee was adopted with only one dissenting voice, and the members elected at the March election took their seats, and those elect

fered their protest against such actions on the part of the House, but in vain. From the committee on credentials, Mr. Mathias reported " that the Governor of the Territory of Kansas had not the exclusive power to prescribe the manner and form by which the first election for the first Territorial Legislative Assembly of the said Territory of Kansas should be conducted and passed upon; but that a fair construction of the 22d section of the said Organic Act leads them-nay drives a majority of your said committee, to the conclusion that no particular form of the oath which the judges of said election took was necessary, and that no particular form of the return of the said election by the said judges was necessary in order to legalize the said election; but that such oaths and such returns as are usual for judges of election in the several States to take, perform and return, is all that the Organic Act requires. And a majority of your committee believe and are of the opinion that from the original papers filed in the office of the Secretary of the Territory, and of other papers and evidence which were before them, that the oaths and returns and all other acts, taken, done and performed by the judges appointed by his excellency, A. H. Reeder, Governor of the Territory of Kansas, to hold and conduct the election for members of the first Territorial Assembly, were in the usual form, at all events as effectual and as legal and binding as if the said oaths and returns had been in the form prescribed by the Governor in his proclamation, verbatim et literatim."

Mr. Houston of the same committee offered a minority report denying the right of the House of Representatives to go behind the certificates of election from the Governor, held by the members, and determine the legality of the grounds upon which they had been issued; that the mere fact of a member holding such a certificate was a sufficient guarantee that he was entitled to his seat in that body. He said:

"To assume the contrary proposition is to assert that this legislative body exists before it can have a legal existence. Whatever latitude may be taken in State legislation with ref

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