is not a dissatisfied mind in all this assembly with the result of the recent deliberations."

The Territorial Delegate Convention which organized the Free State Party, assembled at Big Springs at the designated time. Judge G. W. Smith was chosen permanent chairman. It very fully represented the Territory, consisting of upwards of one hundred members. Five committees of thirteen members each were appointed whose duties were as follows: 1st. To report a platform for the consideration of the convention; 24. To take into consideration the propriety of a State organization: 3d. To consider the duty of the people as regards the proceedings of the late Legislature; 4th. To devise action on the coming Congressional election; 5th. On miscellaneous business." The following report, submitted by Colonel Lane from the committee on platform, was adopted:

"WHEREAS, The Free State Party of the Territory of Kansas, about to originate an organization for concert of political action, in electing our own officers and moulding our institutions; AND WHEREAS, It is expedient and necessary that a platform of principles be adopted and proclaimed to make known the character of our organization, and to test the qualifications of candidates and the fidelity of our members; AND WHEREAS, We find ourselves in an unparalleled and critical condition-deprived by superior force of the rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Kansas Bill; AND WHEREAS, The great and overshadowing question, whether Kansas shall become a free or a slave State, must inevitably absorb all other issues, except those inseparably connected with it; AND WHEREAS, The crisis demands the concert and harmonious action of all those who from principal or interest, prefer free labor to slave labor, as well as of those who value the preservation of the Union and the guarantees of republican institutions by the Constitution, therefore

"Resolred, That setting aside all the minor issues of partisan politics, it is incumbent upon us to proffer an organization calculated to recover our dearest rights, and into

which Democrats and Whigs, native and naturalized citizens, may freely enter without any sacrifice of their respective political creeds, but without forcing them as a test upon others. And that when we shall have achieved our political freedom, vindicated our rights of self-government and become an independent State of the Union, when these issues may become vital as they are now dormant, it will be time enough to divide our organization by these tests, the importance of which we fully recognize in their appropriate sphere.

Resolved, That we will oppose and resist all non-resident voters at our polls, whether from Missouri or elsewhere, as a gross violation of our rights, and a virtual disfranchisement of our citizens.

"Resolved, That our true interests, socially, morally and pecuniarily, require that Kansas should be a free State; that free labor will best promote the happiness, the rapid population, the prosperity and the wealth of our people; that -lave labor is a curse to the master and the community, if not to the slave; that our country is unsuited to it, and that we will devote our energies as a party to exclude the institution, and to secure for Kansas the constitution of a free State.

Resolved, That the best intererts of Kansas require a population of free white men, and that in the State organization we are in favor of stringent laws excluding all negroes, bond or free, from the Territory; that nevertheless such measures shall not be regarded as a test of party orthodoxy.

Resolved, That the stale and ridiculous charge of abolitionism, so industriously imputed to the Free State Party, and so persistently adhered to, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, is without a shadow of truth to support it, and that it is not more appropriate to ourselves than it is to our opponents, who use it as a term of reproach, to bring odium upon us, pretending to believe in its truth, and hoping to frighten from our ranks the weak and timid, who are more willing to desert their principles than they are to stand up under persecution and abuse with a conscientiousness of right.

Resolved, That we will discountenance and denounce any attempt to encroach upon the constitutional rights of the people of any State, or to interfere with their slaves, conceding to their citizens the right to regulate their own

institutions, and to hold and recover their slaves, without any molestation or obstruction from the people of Kansas."

This report elicited a warm discussion. Many were in favor of a more radical platform, and were particularly opposed to those clauses alluding to slavery and abolitionists. They were generally eastern men. On the other hand there were many who despised the name of abolitionist," and were opposed to negroes being in Kansas in any shape or form. They had not been educated to a high standard of human rights. They were chiefly western men and Democrats, some of whom were Missourians. There can be no doubt that the prevailing element in this Territory at that time, as it was then all over the free States, was not only hostile to slavery, but bitterly hostile to the negro. It was thought, too, that many of the Missourians, in the Territory who could have no interest in slavery, but who could not bear the idea of being "abolitionists" would be gained by this conservative platform.

It was argued by a majority of the convention that such a conservative and liberal platform would commend itself both to Congress and the inhabitants of the Territory, thus enabling them to accomplish the real object of their unionexclusion of slavery from Kansas. It was, indeed, a policy whereby a verbal concession of principle was made on the part of some, with a view of obtaining a position to more fully vindicate and carry out their principles; but at the same time this platform embodied the sentiments and feelings of a majority of the people in the Territory at that

time.

The Committee on State Organization reported that in their opinion the movement was "untimely and inexpedient." Its members were II. B. Brock, J. M. Yates, R. G. Elliott, R. Mendenhall, II. M. Hook, E. Castle, J. Hamilton, I. J. Stout, A. Bowen, S. D. Houston, J. M. Arthur and Isaac Wollard. After a spirited discussion, the report was re

jected by a substitute offered by Mr. Hutchingson, that the Convention fully endorse "the People's Convention of the 14th ult., for a delegate convention of the people of Kansas Territory, to be held at Topeka on the 19th inst., to consider the propriety of forming a State constitution," &c.

Mr. J. S. Emery, from the Committee having charge of the legislative matters of the Territory, made the following cloquent report:

"Resolved, That the body of men who, for the past two months, have been making laws for the people of our Territory, moved, counselled and dictated to by the demagogues of Missouri, are to us a foreign body, representing only the lawless invaders who elected them, and not the people of the Territory, that we repudiate their action as the monstrous consummation of an act of violence, usurpation and fraud, unparalleled in the history of the Union, and worthy only of men unfitted for the duties and regardless of the responsibilities of Republicans.

"Resolved, That having by reason of numerical inferiority and want of preparation, been compelled to succumb to the outrageous oppression of armed and organized bands of the citizens of a neighboring State-having been robbed by force of the right of suffrage and self-government, and subjected to a foreign despotism, the more odious and infamous that it involves a violation of compacts with sister States, more sacred and solemn than treaties-we disown and disavow with scorn and indignation the contemptible and hypocritical mockery of a republican government into which this infamous despotism has been converted.

"Resolred, That this miscalled Legislature, by their reckless disregard of the Organic Territorial Act, and other Congressional legislation, in expelling members whose title to seats was beyond their power to annul, in admitting members who were not elected, and in legislating at an unauthorized place-by their refusal to allow the people to to select any of their own officers, many of whom were unquestionable residents of Missouri at that time-by leaving us no elections save those prescribed by Congress, and therefore beyond their power to abrogate, and even at these selling the right of suffrage at our ballot-boxes to any non-resident who chooses to buy and pay for it-by

compelling us to take an oath to support a law of the United States, invidiously pointed out-bysing the freedom of speec. and of the press, thus usurping the power forbidden to Congress, libelled the Declaration of Independence-violated the Constitutional Bill of Rights, and brought contempt and disgrace upon our Republican institutions at home and abroad.

Resolved, That we owe no allegiance or obedience to the tryannical enactments of this spurious Legislature-that their laws have no validity or binding force upon the people of Kansas, and that every free man among us is at full liberty, consistent with all his obligations as a citizen and a man, to resist them if he chooses so to do.

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Resolved, That we will resist them primarily by every peaceable and legal means in our power, until we can elect our own Representatives and sweep them from the Statute Book, and that as the majority of our Supreme Court have so far forgotten their official duty-have so far cast off the honor of a lawyer and the dignity of a Judge as to enter clothed with the judicial ermine into a partisan contest, and by extra-judicial decisions giving opinions in violation of all propriety, having prejudged our case before we could be heard, and have pledged themselves to the outlaws in advance, to decide in their favor, we will therefore take measures to carry the question of the validity of these laws to a higher tribunal where Judges are unpledged and dispassionate-where the law will be administered in its purity, and where we can at least have the hearing before the de

cision.

"Resolved, That we will endure and submit to these laws no longer than the best interests of the Territory require, as the least of two evils, and will resist them to a bloody issue as soon as we ascertain that peaceable remedies shall fail, and forcible resistance shall furnish any reasonable prospect of success; and that in the meantime we recommend to our friends throughout the Territory the organization and discipline of Volunteer Companies and the procurement and preparation of arms.

“Resolved, That we cannot, and will not, quietly submit to surrender our great American Birth Right-the elective franchise-which, first by violence, and then by chicanery, artifice, weak and wicked legislation, they have so effeetually attempted to deprive us of, and that we with scorn