pate in the election, and offered no disturbance, except in a few places.

About this time occurred an amusing incident, to the chagrin and disadvantage of the people at Leavenworth. The bogus Legislature, among the many things it did, had divided the Territory into counties; but in consequence of the hurry and burden of business, had neglected, in several instances, to locate the county seats, which was the case with Leavenworth County, and accordingly an election by its citizens was called to decide that question. There happened to be three rival towns which contended for the honor of the county seat. Two were intensely pro-slavery; Kickapoo, about ten miles above, and Delaware, eight miles below, Leavenworth. Both were prospectively great in the eyes of those interested at that time, but both have long since ceased to be known. Leavenworth contained a majority of free state men, with a large minority of pro-slavery men; but by being situated so near the border, the latter generally ruled. Its citizens, of course, all desired the county seat, and confidently expected it. They, therefore, made but little effort at the election, feeling that their local interest would poll the majority of votes in favor of their town. The other two contestants knew their cause was hopeless in a fair election, but they resolved to profit by their recent instructions in ballot box frauds. The matter was laid before the people of Platte County, among whom Leavenworth was reputed as an "abolition stink hole," and they agreed to help their friends across the river in this dilemma. On the day of the election Leavenworth polled about five or six hundred votes, all legal. Between Weston and Kickapoo a steam ferry boat was kept running all day, pouring in voters from Missouri, until they polled at the latter place eight hundred and fifty ballots for the county seat; whereas the total number of legal voters in that precinct did not exceed one hunand fifty. At Delaware they went still farther. Besides conveying voters across the river in a chartered steamer for

For this purpose The first author

one day only, they kept it up after they had learned the result at Kickapoo, until they had polled nearly nine hundred votes, only fifty of which were legal. they had kept the polls open three days. ity to whom these returns were made decided in favor of Kickapoo, declaring that keeping the polls open for three days was an "unheard of irregularity." "Kickapoo was jubilant, Leavenworth was sore. Her pro-slavery men were grieviously indignant. So long as this kind of operation had been directed against the abolitioners' it was fair; but now they began to realize a touch of Squatter Sovereignty, as enunciated in the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Leavenworth Herald whose editor had been a member of the bogus Council of the Shawnee Mission, began to print moral lessons and homilies on the tendencies of these things. All the respectable, which means the property holding, pro-slaslavery men about Leavenworth, looked solemn."

The Kickapoo Pioneer, a fire-eating, pro-slavery paper, taunted Mr. Easton, of the Leavenworth Herald, of his sudden conversion to the purify-the-polls' doctrine, and finished a somewhat sarcastic article by asking, 'Who elected you to the Legislature? This was severe but fair. In the dilemma the Herald got off the following interesting morsel, being a part of a glorious article two columns long:

"Much has been said by the abolition presses throughout the country about armed invasions of Kansas by the Border Ruffians of Missouri,' but, as we then asserted and still assert, they were acting solely in self-defense; and history will tell of the purity of their purpose and of the justice of the cause they vindicated. They came here actuated by the noblest of human sentiments, determined to ward off a blow which was aimed against their institutions. and against their peace. As such, with open arms we welcomed them; and, when victory crowned our common efforts, and the black flag of abolitionism trailed in the dust, how grateful were the feelings we experienced to those who had rallied with us to a hand-to-hand encounter with the aggressive foes.

"But did any pro-slavery man in or out of Kansas for a moment imagine that, by reason of such elections, Kansas had surrendered unconditionally, and that Missouri had made the conquest of the Territory for the use and benefit of Platte County, upon her border? and, worse than this, to be made the plaything and the puppet of a few demagogues and hucksters in Weston and Platte City? The idea is simply absurd.'

"Absurd though it might be, it still was a 'fixed fact." Kickapoo had to bite the dust before the sovereign will of the majority. The election was referred to a court which decided in favor of Delaware. This was, at least, consistent; for, as all the pro-slavery courts, which means all the courts in the Territory, had decided in favor of bogus authority, it was not going to do to establish so dangerous a precedent as setting aside an election on account of any irregularity."

The Topeka Constitutional Convention, from the object it had in view, and from the circumstances under which it assembled, was one of the most important bodies of men ever convened in Kansas. It was composed of the chief men among the free soilers from all parts of the Territory. They had emigrated from every State in the Union, and represented every political party, religious sect, habit of life, prejudice, dogma and principle that exist in the United States. There were Republicans, Democrats, Whigs and Abolitionists-all freesoilers. Every occupation had its representative; the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, the preacher and the lawyer. They occupied every grade of intelligence and age; from the illiterate to the learned, from the young to the old. Some were pious and some were not so much so; some were temperate, others indulged when they felt like it. There were the young and the ambitious, who, while they sought to advance the cause of freedom, equally hoped to advance themselves. There were those who had entered upon the conflict to defend the principles involved. They were no politicians, but men of sound sense and sterling worth, who sought no preferment, but expected to re

tire to private life when the contest should end. There were politicians, experienced and adroit in pulling the wires, who had come here to retrieve or better their political fortune. They thought by judiciously framing the ship of State with reference to the political elements with which it had to contend, to safely ride themselves into office. They were unscrupulous as regards principles and advised the surrendering of a portion of them, like mariners do with their cargo in a storm, to prevent the shipwreck of their hopes. The members of the convention were, indeed, what they purported to be-THE REPRESENTATIVES OF A PEOPLE that had recently emigrated from all parts of the nation, bringing with them their characteristic peculiarities and provincialisms.

Fifty-two members had been elected, but only forty took part in the deliberations. Their daily proceedings were officially published in a small sheet from the press of the "Kansas Freeman." Mr. E. C. K. Garvey was editor-a short, thick, hump-shouldered Irishman. The convention had all the attendants of a legislative body. There were caucuses, committee meetings, electioneering, button-hole fingering and speech making. Newspaper reporters were admitted to a seat within the bar, and sent the proceedings of the convention to all parts of the country. A chaplain opened their sessions with prayer, and humbly invoked the "wisdom that cometh from above." Parties, oyster suppers, concerts and lectures afforded amusements.

The citizens were especially courteous and clever, as they hoped to secure the capital of the rising State.

The members of the Convention were generally conservative, the Democrats having a slight majority, and about as many from the western as from the eastern States. The vote upon striking out the word "white" from the Constitution stood 7 yeas to 24 nays, as follows:

Yeas-Brown, Crosby, Hillyer, Hunting, Knight, Robinson, Schuyler.

Nays-Arthur, Burson, Curtiss, Cutler, Delahay, Dodge, Hunt, Klotz, Lane, Latta, Landis, McDaniels, McWhenny, Parrott, Roberts, Sayle, Smith, Thomson, Tutton, Wakefield, Hicks, Emery, Gooden, Holliday, Graham.

On a resolution "approving the principles of Squatter Sovereignty, and non-intervention by the people of the States as well as Congress in the local affairs of the Territories and States," the vote stood 17 yeas to 15 nays.

The Convention did not come to a test vote upon the exclusion of free negroes from the Territory, but compromised the matter by a resolution providing for a submission of the question to a vote of the people, which should act as instruction to the State Legislature. Thus the odious "black law" had no place in the Constitution, but a majority of the delegates were probably in favor it. The great argument employed in its favor was that unless some such provision should be made, Missouri would burden the State. with her worn out, infirm and worthless negroes.

The Convention was in session sixteen days, and moulded the first Constitution of the State. There was nothing remarkable in the document itself; but the circumstances under which it was framed rendered it illustrious. Nevertheless, it formed the model by which the other two free state Constitutions were shaped, which are in reality only amendments of that instrument. It provided that "there shall be no slavery in the State, nor involuntary servitude, unless for a punishment of crime," and that the first Legislature should provide for the enforcement of this article on or before the 4th of July, 1857. The boundaries of the State were the same as those prescribed in the act organizing the Territory. All male Indians who had adopted the customs of the whites should be allowed to vote. The question of excluding from the State free negroes and mulattoes occasioned much discussion. The General Assembly should be composed of sixty Representatives and twenty Senators, who should receive $4,00 per day for their serv