ions for Taking the Census; Provisions for the Election of Delegates; Census Returns; Law Not Complied With; The Apportionment; Mr. Stanton's Speech; Governor Walker on the Election in his Inaugural; Reasons Why Free State Men did not Contest the Election; Pro-Slavery Men Censure Walker; Extract from Richmond Paper; Free State Men Re- solve not to contest the Election; State Legislature Convenes... 441-454 QUESTION OF VOTING FOR MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE-Conven- tion at Topeka; Election; The Lawrence Municipal Govern. ment; Question of contesting the Election; Difficulties in the Way; Apportionment; Decided Against Free State Men; Grass. hopper Falls Convention; Remarks; Resolutions; The Dele- gate Convention; Election Results; Frauds; Kansas Judges.... 455-464 LECOMPTON CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-Constitutional Convention Organized; Indignation Towards the Convention; Framing the Constitution; Question of Submitting It to a Vote; Its Features; Provisions for Submit ing It to the People; Objec- tions to It; Free State Men Refuse to Participate in Election; The Misstep; Critical Situation of Free State Men; The Frightful Measure; Governor Walker at Washington; His Resig- nation; Extra Session of the Legislature called; Difficulties the Legislature could not Overcome; Its Acts; Removal of Stan- ton and Appointment of General Denver; Election on Ratifi- LEGISLATURES-Election for State Officers; Democratic Conven- tion; Lawrence Convention of December 20; That of the 23d; Lane's Strategy, "Bolter's Convention; Election Re. sults; Memorial to Congress; Free State Legislature; Commu nication to the Territorial Legislature; Action of the Latter; The Former Adjourns; General Denver; Territorial Legislature Convenes; Board of Commissioners; Failure of the Legislature. 482-494 TROUBLES IN SOUTH EASTERN KANSAS-First Settlers; Capt. James Montgomery; First Convention; Second Convention; First Elec- tion; Appearance of Armed Force; Grievances; The Christian Warrior; Territies the Enemy; Attacks Davis, Raid in Mis- orri; A Second Raid; Retires; Pro Slavery Men During the Winter; Free State Emigrar ts; Caim Difficulties; The Fort TROUBLES IN SOUTH-EASTERN KANSAS-Continued-Fort Scott En- The art His Purpose; Fight with the U. S. Troops; Hamilton Prepares to Strike; The Murders; The Pursuit; Dispatches to Denver; Captain Walker's Visit to Fort Scott, and Arrests; POLITICAL PARTIES-Disintegration of Political Parties; Of the Free State Party; In the Fall of 1857; At the Legislature; Its Action; Constitutional Convention; Difficulty in Uniting, Last of the Toneka State Government; Vote for Delegates; Constitution; Nomination; Election; English Bill; Old Ap- ortionment; Republican Party; Democratic Party; Attempt to Preserve the Free State Party; A Failure; Observation; TROUBLES IN SOUTH-EASTERN KANSAS-They Continue: Murder and Robbery: Arrest of Marshall; Emigrants; Why Slavery Clung to South-eastern Kansas; Arrest of Rice; John Brown; His Fort Menaced; Free State Democrats; They Endorse Montgomery; Release of Rice; Little Killed and Store Robbed; John Brown VARIOUS ITEMS-Provisions of the First Legislature for Auditing Claims; The Commissioner; His Report; Appointment of a New Board of Commissioners; Their Report; Property De- stroyed; Sacrifices of Free ctate Men; Difficulty About the Bonds; Election on the Question of Calling a Constitutional Convention; Election of Delegates; Organization of the Con- vention; Committees; Report of Committee on Ladies' Peti- tion; Votes on the Negro Questions; Northern Boundary; Temporary Seat of Government; Homestead; Election on the THE DROUTH-Legislature Convenes; Adjourns; Convened Again; Character and Extent of the Drouth; Its Effect upon Crops; Extended to Other States; People Poorly Prepared for It; 30,000 Leave; Others Barely Able to Support Themselves; Be nevolent Move of Thadyas Hyatt; Operations of the Relief Committees; Precipitation and Distribution of Rain in Kansas. 560-569 VARIOUS ITEMS-Imprisonment and Rescue of John Dov; Marshal Arns; Fugitive Slave Law; Hanging of Hines; Of Guthrie and C. Carlan; Returned Border Ruffians; Difficulties on the Neutral Lands; Settlers Driven Off; New York Indian Lands; Last Territor al Legislature; Financial Statement of the Ter ritory for Each Year; Wyandotte Constitution in Congress; Ad- mission of Kansas; Character of the Kansas Straggle.......... 570-578 HISTORY OF KANSAS TERRITORY. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. As the territory of the State of Kansas is a part of the Louisiana purchase, I will first give a succinct account of the discovery, exploration and settlement of that province; of the many changes in ownership which it underwent, and the final division and organization of its broad domain into territories and states to form integral parts in the American Union. Forty-four years after the western shores of the Atlantic had been discovered and before any settlements had been effected thereon, the first Europeans traversed the valley of the Mississippi. Ferdinand De Soto, a man of valor, fame, and fortune, headed this expedition. An intimate associate of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, he shared in the immense ransom of the Inca. Returning to his native land, he enjoyed the admiration and honors of Spain. Charles V. appointed him governor of Cuba, and gave him a grant of Florida. His ambition inflamed by the adulations of the court, his avarice more craving by the taste of riches, he sought to surpass Cortes in glory and Pizarro in wealth by seeking a new field for fame and riches in America. With six hundred chosen men he disembarked in 1538 at Tampa Bay, in Florida, and began his memorable march through the savage wilds of the interior. After two years of wandering through swamps and brush, over ragged hills and swollen torrents, harrassed on every hand by enraged savages, but with hopes inspired, amid all embarrassments, by the ignis fatuus of early adventurers-the El Dorado of North America-he stood upon the banks of the Mississippi, the discoverer of the most majestic river in the world. Crossing this, where the southern boundary of Tennessee touches it, as though it had been a swampd rain, he pressed his vain search for the "gold region," westward through cane-brakes, marshes and tangled forests, perplexed by the murmurings of his followers, until he reached the head waters of the Arkansas, where Fort Gibson was afterwards located, within one hundred miles of the southern boundary of Kansas. Looking out upon the broad expanse of prairie before him, he saw no prospect of the "land of hope." Disappointed and disheartened, the little band of adventurers returned to the banks of the Mississippi. There, on the wet lands of the bottoms, surrounded by weeds and cane-brakes, with no one to administer to the sympathies and wants of the sick, De Soto died of fever. "Thus perished," says Bancroft, "Ferdinand De Soto, the governor of Cuba, the successful associate of Pizarro. His miserable end was the more observed from the greatness of his former prosperity. His soldiers pronounced his eulogy by grieving for his loss; the priests chanted over his body the first requiems that were ever heard on the waters of the Mississippi. To conceal his death, his body was wrapped in a mantle, and, in the stillness of midnight, was sunk in the middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Mississippi slept beneath its He had crossed a large part of the continent in search of gold, and found nothing so remarkable as a burial place." His followers reduced in numbers to three hundred and eleven, after long wanderings, reached a place of safety in Mexico. * waters. Some writers discredit the account of De Soto's journey, but I have followed the readings of Bancroft and Schoolcraft, The latter has been over the country west of the Mississippi, and finds it to corroborate the description of it in the alleged account of De Soto's journey. More than a century elapsed before another European visits the Mississippi valley. The French had settled along the St. Lawrence, and around the Great Lakes. Missionaries with pious zeal were planting the Cross among the Indians and subduing the barbarians unto Christ by the gentleness of Love. The most earnest and successful among these was Father Marquette! The Indians frequently spoke of a great river at the West, flowing south which they called Mississippy, as Marquette wrote it. It was a matter of debate among the French, what course this river pursued to the ocean. Some contended that it continued to flow directly south, and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico; others were of the opinion that it deflected either to the east and discharged itself into the Atlantic, or west, and poured its waters into the Gulf of California. To settle this difficult question and carry the Gospel to the heathen, Father Marquette determined to make a tour of exploration. Encouraged by the governor of Canada, who gave him M. Joliet as a companion, and five other Frenchmen, he embarked on the 13th of May, 1673, in two bark canoes at Michilimackinac. Reaching Green Bay, the solicitous aborigines besought him with tears to abandon so hazardous an undertaking, portraying to him the fright-. ful dangers of the Meschasebe (Mississippi.) "I thanked them for their good advice," says Marquette, "but I told them I could not follow it, since the salvation of souls was at stake, for which I would be overjoyed to give my life." Ascending Fox River and crossing the portage, they gave themselves to the current of the Wisconsin, and were soon carried into the waters of the Mississippi. Borne upon this mighty stream, they continued to descend, occasionally halting at Indian villages, smoking the calumet of peace and narrating the story of the Cross, until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas. Here, satisfied that the Mississippi continues its course to the Gulf of |